Allegri: Milan must tighten up defence

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri says his side need to focus on their defence ahead of their game against Parma on Wednesday.

In a remarkable game on Sunday, Milan went in at half time 3-0 down against Lecce, only to turn the match around to win 4-3 thanks largely to a Kevin Prince Boateng hat-trick.

While Allegri praised his sides’s mental strength to get the win in Lecce, he is demanding his side’s defence improves.

“We need to stop our opponents scoring, like in Lecce. Above all we need to play better,” Allegri said.

“In the first half we made a lot of technical mistakes, we still managed to reach their area, but then we got lost and took too long to get the ball back.”

“We allowed to them to counter-attack a lot. I think that was our major mistake and of course we played a bad first half.

Allegri said his side could not afford to let themselves get so far behind, particularly with a busy schedule of matches ahead in the next few weeks.

“It was a sign of great strength, but let’s hope it will continue like that,” he said.

“Let’s try not to make the same mistakes again, also because it’s such a waste of physical and mental energy and that’s dangerous.

“We have a match against Parma and it will be a difficult match, because they’re very fit, they have talented players, they have (Sebastian) Giovinco who’s making the difference at the moment.”

“He’s really good, they’re a team that run a lot and press a lot too. It will be a tough match tomorrow and after 72 hours we’ll be playing again against Roma and that match will be very important too.”

“We need to go into the game in the best possible way tomorrow night, with great attention and not conceding much and trying to use our best qualities.”