Pioli Says Players Often Waste Time And Protest A Lot, Proof That Italian Teams Are Difficult To Compete In Europe?

Juventus Vs AC Milan (Twitter @acmilan)

JAKARTA - Stefano Pioli criticized when he said he felt that the match between Juventus and AC Milan in the fourth week of the Italian League only lasted 48 minutes at the Allianz Stadium, Sunday local time (Monday WIB).

He felt that too much time was wasted by the players, such as protesting the referee's decisions, proving pundits' criticism of why Italian teams struggle to compete in Europe.

"I just want to continue the note that people think Italian teams are struggling in Europe because of the difference in the tempo of the game," Pioli told DAZN after the match.

"I have to say today we only played a real football game for 48 minutes.

"Too many pauses, arguments with the referee, waiting, free kicks.

"This all has to be worked out together or we will all find it difficult to enter the game with a completely different atmosphere," he said at length.

Pioli has experienced the abyss of the tempo of the game's pace when Milan were beaten by Liverpool 2-3 at Anfield in the Champions League Group B match, in the middle of last week.

At that time Milan were too tired to follow the tempo of the fast game presented by the Liverpool players, thus throwing away the 2-1 advantage they had.

On the other hand, Pioli considered his team's performance to be quite positive even though they only won one point from Juventus headquarters.

This can not be separated from the fact that the Rossoneri lost at least six senior players namely Olivier Giroud and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, which was exacerbated by the departure of old defender Simon Kjaer due to injury in the middle of the match.

"We came here chasing the win, Juve played better in the first 20 minutes but we were more focused and determined and played better so we could have won at the end, so overall it was a positive performance," he said.

"We don't lack desire, character, determination or tenacity because the players continued to show they were chasing wins throughout the game," Pioli concluded.

The result made Milan not move from second place standings with a collection of 10 points and only left behind on goal difference from city rivals Inter Milan who topped the list.

Milan will play again on Wednesday, trying to get back to winning ways when they host promoted Venezia at the San Siro.