Fonseca hails courageous Milan after win

'The important thing for me is to continue seeing players believe in our ideas'

MILAN:

AC Milan manager Paulo Fonseca praised his side's bravery after they beat city rivals Inter Milan 2-1 on Sunday. Milan secured a late victory when defender Matteo Gabbia eluded his marker and found the top corner with a perfectly timed header from a free kick.

The win marked Milan's first victory in the Derby della Madonnina since 2022 after suffering six consecutive defeats to Inter. "It was an important match. First of all, because it's a derby that Milan hadn't won in a long time. It was important given the moment we were going through," Fonseca told DAZN.

"I think the players showed a lot of courage and we deserved the win. I don't remember seeing a team who caused this many problems for Inter in a long time."

Fonseca brushed off the suggestion that the victory had eased the pressure on him after a poor start to the campaign in which Milan won only once in five matches across all competitions before Sunday. "It makes little difference to me, because I don't read or listen to these things," he said.

"It will be a week with a little more confidence, but the important thing for me is to continue seeing the players believe in our ideas, the way they have done so far. "We know that we must improve, but this was a victory for the players today," Fonseca added. Inter coach Simone Inzaghi acknowledged that Milan were the better team at the San Siro and questioned the attitude displayed by his players at times during the match.

"Of course Milan are a very good team. They did better than us this evening and deserved the victory," Inzaghi said. "We had the wrong approach and weren't enough of a team, which is rare for us. We didn't start either half with the right attitude."

With two draws and one loss in Serie A so far, defending champions Inter have endured a mixed start to the campaign. "It's unexpected, we had worked well over the last couple of days in training, but the approach was wrong in both halves. Now we've already dropped a few too many points in Serie A and this is particularly sore," Inzaghi added. Milan next host Lecce in Serie A on Friday while Inter will travel to Udinese on Saturday.

Roma players disappointed by De Rossi sacking, Juric says

New AS Roma coach Ivan Juric said his players were disappointed by the sacking of Daniele De Rossi, but he was pleased with their performance as they clinched their first Serie A win of the season by beating Udinese 3-0 on Sunday. De Rossi, who spent nearly two decades at Roma as a player, was sacked on Wednesday after his team failed to win any of their first four league games. Former Torino coach Juric was appointed as his replacement.

Roma's CEO Lina Souloukou stepped down on Sunday due to the fans' anger over De Rossi's sacking. "Upon becoming coach I saw that some of the guys here were extremely disappointed about Daniele's sacking," Juric told Sky Sports.

"They were very honest with me in telling me that they were very upset about him being fired. It's something I really appreciated, because sometimes players hide such emotions. "In the last few days they have worked well and put in many hours... I really liked how the team responded, especially in the first half."

Roma, who have six points from five matches, host Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League on Thursday, before facing Venezia in Serie A on Sunday. "We've got a large squad which allows me to shake things up. In the next two weeks we'll see a lot of rotation," Juric added.