Hiljemark: ‘Pisa fell asleep and you pay for that against Milan’

Oscar Hiljemark admits Pisa ‘fell asleep in two situations, and you will pay for that’ against Milan after a late 2-1 home defeat.

The coach made his debut last week in a 0-0 draw with Hellas Verona, and this was another step in the right direction in terms of performance, albeit not result.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek had been allowed a free header to break the deadlock, and after Niclas Fullkrug fired a penalty onto the upright, Pisa pounced to equalise with Felipe Loyola.

Luka Modric made his mark late on by combining with Samuele Ricci to score the winner, despite Adrien Rabiot seeing red in stoppages.

Hiljemark saw Pisa positives and negatives

“Tactically, we did fantastically well, but fell asleep in two situations, and against a side like Milan you will pay for that,” Hiljemark told DAZN Italia.

“We suffered a little in the first half, did better after the break, created more positive situations and it was going well when we were at 1-1, so accepting the 2-1 defeat is tough.

“I see improvements, stepping up the tempo during the match, but we’ve got to do it more and for longer. We have the quality to play football, if you keep just kicking the ball away, you will spend 90 per cent of your time defending, so we’ve got to do better.”

Curiously, Modric is seven years older than Pisa coach Hiljemark, becoming the third-oldest player to score in Serie A at 40 years and 157 days.

“When facing a team like Milan, they like having possession, so when we win back the ball, we’ve got to go straight into that positive transition. We did it better in the second half, but need to do it more.”

Pisa have just one victory in Serie A all season, earned against Cremonese, and remain rooted to the foot of the table.

However, they had held Milan to a 2-2 draw at San Siro, and very nearly did the same this evening, so they are able to raise their game against the big clubs.

“At this moment, I am already thinking about the next match. There is a long road ahead of us, but I saw a team that wanted to play and could rely on the fans. Resilience is very important right now,” concluded Hiljemark.