Conceicao: ‘Milan deserved a point, but we had to change a lot’ due to illness | OneFootball

Sergio Conceicao reveals how illness forced him to change his Milan plans against Napoli, and why he left Rafael Leao on the bench. ‘I feel we deserved a draw out of this.’

The Rossoneri never quite managed to recover from another dismal start, conceding from Matteo Politano after 64 seconds, then Romelu Lukaku made the most of another defensive error at the 19th minute.

It changed in the second half with the introduction of Rafael Leao and Santiago Gimenez, although the Mexico international saw his weak penalty saved by Alex Meret.

When Luka Jovic came sliding in to meet the Theo Hernandez assist, it set up a fiery finale, but it was too late to turn this around.

“Since I have been here, which is almost three months, I never sought excuses about the lack of time to train, but today everything happened,” Conceicao told DAZN.

It had been reported Ruben Loftus-Cheek was meant to start this match, but he was rushed to hospital today for emergency surgery to remove his appendix.

“I woke up at 7.30am to a call from the doctor, Loftus-Cheek was ill. We talked to the players after 12.30, because Malick Thiaw couldn’t play either as he was vomiting, then a little later Rafael Leao felt pain in his calf.

“I had already thought of starting without Leao, so it’s not that he didn’t play because of that. He arrived late from international duty after playing two games, so did Santi Gimenez, I had to take that into account,” explained Conceicao.

“We had prepared the game in a certain way and had to change a lot. Having said all of that, we could’ve done a lot more in the first half, we conceded a goal after a minute, the first 20 minutes were not what we had planned.

“These little things keep happening, I don’t want to call on bad luck, but we really had a horrible day. At least there was a very positive reaction in the second half, we created so many scoring opportunities and I feel we deserved a draw out of this.”

Conceicao explains Milan penalty confusion

epa12000154 Milan�s forward Santiago Gimenez reacts after missing to score from the penalty spot during the Italian Serie A soccer match SSC Napoli vs AC Milan at Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples, Italy, 30 March 2025. EPA-EFE/CIRO FUSCO

Milan have failed to convert four out of their nine penalties so far this season in all competition, with four different players making mistakes from the spot.

Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao handed the ball to Gimenez, so who was meant to step up today?

“There are three players who we have on the list, they train regularly, but I’ve been a player, so I know that at times the decision is made on the field. I think Pulisic was trying to give his teammate confidence, he hasn’t scored in a few weeks, so at that moment I do not want to get involved,” explained Conceicao.

“I think it was a good sign of teamwork that they wanted to do that. I still feel we could’ve got a point from this game with the number of chances we created.”

Check the Football Italia Player Ratings for Napoli 2-1 Milan

Milan remain in ninth place and are now a massive nine points adrift of Bologna in fourth and five behind even Roma in sixth, so Conceicao’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League are reduced to the bare minimum.

“The team has potential, it has quality, but we must find this balance. We have to press higher and have the courage to do that, but Napoli managed to get through our first press far too easily in the first half,” added Conceicao.

“I saw a different attitude in the second half, because in football you need quality, but also the courage, desire and hunger to take men on. If you struggle off the ball, then you are not fresh to attack with quality when you do get the ball.

“I have a lot of faith in this squad, it’s a healthy group that wants to change this atmosphere and on Wednesday we have the chance to do that.”

Conceicao’s Milan will face Inter in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final on Wednesday evening at San Siro.