Cristian on Milan, and previews Forest: "Everyone wants to win this game"
Wed 09 November 2022, 10:45|
Tottenham Hotspur
Cristian Stellini left no doubt as to where the coaching and playing staff stand ahead of this evening's Carabao Cup third round tie against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground (7.45pm).
This will be the 12th of 13 matches in 43 days since the Premier League resumed after September's international break on 1 October. In that time, we've stayed in the top four of the Premier League, progressed as group winners to the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League and now the squad is determined to make through this tricky tie against Forest.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY on Tuesday, Antonio Conte's assistant Cristian gave us the rundown on Forest, AC Milan and team news...
Cristian on Forest...
"Our expectation is that this is an important competition. Everyone wants to win this game. It was a tough game against Forest last time (a 2-0 win in the Premier League in August) and our expectation is that we will need our best squad to try to win because it will be like last time, we’ll have to fight, to win duels, to be strong. We are positive, because we find the way to start the match aggressively, and we are positive because the last match against Liverpool, we played in a good way. We are happy, we are proud about the last match."
From his press conference: "Every game we play we want to win. Our decision is taken to try to win every game. We will use the best team to try to win the game against Forest. It will not be easy because we played against them at the start of the season, and it was a tough game. They have a big squad and a lot of players with similar qualities. They can use them to make changes like us and not drop the level of the team. Our expectation will be this."
Our expectation is that this is an important competition. Everyone wants to win this game
Cristian on team news...
If you missed our team news update yesterday afternoon, here's what Cristian had to say...
“Richarlison started training with the team yesterday. For us, it’s great news, because we’ve missed Richarlison, like we’ve missed Kulusevski and everyone we’ve missed in this last month. He’s only just started to train with us, we can use him, but we have to be careful, and we work day by day to take the right decision. He’s available for Forest, for sure, but if we have to take a risk, we don’t have to do it, so we manage players who are recovering from injury day by day, and Antonio will take the decision tomorrow for the squad. It’s not only Richarlison or Kulusevski, but also, we’ve played 11 matches (since 1 October) and many players maybe have a small problem or fatigue to recover, so Antonio will take the decision tomorrow. Kulusevski came back in the last match and has been an important player for us for a long time. We are really happy to use him again. He’s an important player, like all the players we have, because in this type of schedule, full of matches, all the players are important.”
Cristian on AC Milan
The draw for the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League pitted us against AC Milan - that means Antonio, Cristian and the coaching team will renew acquaintances from their old rivals from their successful spell at Inter, 2019-2021...
"In this type of competition like the Champions League, if you reach the last 16, every club, every team is ready and good enough to create problems to everyone. AC Milan won the league title last season and started this season very well. They play good football. We know very well, because we arrived (at Spurs) from Milan and they were our sporting enemy. So, we know very well their players, their points of strength and weakness. AC Milan has a long story in European competition, and we have to respect this, because they won a lot in the past. We are happy to challenge them and try to reach our targets."
