Fonseca admits player ‘motivation’ has him ‘more worried’ about Cagliari than Real Madrid | OneFootball

Paulo Fonseca gave a fascinating answer during his pre-match press conference today when asked about how AC Milan perform with the ‘underdog’ tag.

Not many gave Milan much hope on Tuesday night against the champions of Europe Real Madrid, but they pulled off perhaps the shock of the night as they beat them 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Now, the challenge is to find some consistency heading into the international break, and perhaps resume the discussions about a potential title challenge. Cagliari will not be easy opponents though as they are in another relegation scrap at present, and they present a different type of opponent.

During his presser at Milanello today on the eve of the game, a reporter asked him about the potential reasons that Milan did better against Inter and Real Madrid, when they were expected to lose.

“Maybe we can have different explanations. First of all I have to say that this type of match is a great motivation for the players. If we can tell the truth, the players face these matches more motivated than other matches,” he said.

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“And for this reason I am more worried today about Cagliari than before the match against Real. Then, they are totally different matches. When you play against this type of team like against Real, the worst that can happen is not having courage because there is so much space.

“When teams play these types of matches they go in with a bit of fear and think about defending themselves. But I tell the players that there is space, that we can do our things and therefore during the match you gain confidence. In this type of match we have space to play.

“Tomorrow I am sure we will not have the same space to play. The team when it is in this context is a team that has courage, that controls the match, that plays together. That is why we did well.”