Between the league and Europe, Miralem Pjanic talks about the Bianconeri’s approach coming into this moment


FROM SERIE A
“Yesterday we took home an important victory, yet we conceded a goal. Allegri has always explained to us how much we have to put into the defensive phase, and it’s clear that this something that we must improve upon. Just as we have to be even better at closing out games. In one season, there are a lot of fixtures and you cannot always think about going 200 miles per hour. So, when you can, the games have to be managed.

“We still haven’t benefitted as much as we can from set-pieces, but we have excellent shooters and good headerers of the ball, so the goals will come.

“Napoli and Inter are going well like us. Napoli have confirmed their status as a constant title contender, they have played well for years, and this year there is also an Inter team that is starting to reap the benefits of their last few years of work. But in the end, we can only think about ourselves and get even better.”

TO THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
” It will be an important evening, from which we can qualify for the next round. In Manchester, we played a great game, but once again we didn’t close it out how we should have. We want to give our fans an amazing night, United have a lot of champions, even in my area of the pitch which can make the difference, so it will be an interesting game.

“There are a lot of teams that have a chance of winning the Champions League, and as the coach says, Barcelona is one of the favourites. But we have a group that can really go really far.”