Champions League: Portugal star Leão admits “I don’t sitting on the bench” after continuing sparkling form with Milan goal [video]
Slovan Bratislava 2-3 AC Milan
Rafael Leão came off the bench to earn the Man of the Match award in AC Milan’s Champions League victory over Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday evening.
With the score tied at 1-1 heading into the interval, Milan boss Paulo Fonseca opted to introduce Leão and the Portugal man continued his recent excellent form by scoring a decisive goal to put the visitors 2-1 up midway through the second half.
Leão’s calm finish was added to by Tammy Abraham, before Slovan pulled one back in the closing minutes. Speaking after the match, Leão admitted that he was not pleased to be named among the substitutes, but respects his manager’s decision after picking up the MVP award.
“Everything has been resolved,” Leão said. “Fonseca knows that I don’t like sitting on the bench, but if he decides otherwise, I’m always ready for my team. I’m happy, the coach is doing a good job and we want to understand his ideas even more. Results will come with time.
“In my opinion, I think this game could have ended with even more goals given what we created. We needed to be more aggressive in front of goal. They had confidence at home, but in the end we created more. We deserved the victory.”
Rafeal Leao is unreal, what a finish to put Milan 2-1 up
— Liam (@LFC_Liam66) November 26, 2024
Unreal performance from him pic.twitter.com/f7UWJTe6s7
Fonseca, meanwhile, says the compatriots have a clear communication, while stating that the Rossoneri deservedly earned the three points, which saw them temporarily move up to 14th in the Champions League table.
“I always talk with Rafa, he knows why he didn’t play today," Fonseca explained. "He understood, and when he came on he was decisive. I think that’s what we all want. I’m happy. Even when he’s on the bench he always wants to help the team and that’s really positive.
“I think we dominated throughout the game. We changed a lot of players and we did things positively. There are things we need to improve on, maybe because we changed so much. We didn’t do well in preventative marking, but we improved after the break.
“We deserved to win and there was a clear error by the referee before the last goal. I think we deserved to finish with a different result.”
Leão now has four goals in his last five appearances for club and country.
By @SeanGillen9