Divock Origi spoke to the press after playing 45 minutes Milan’s win over Hellas Verona last night.
After 45 minutes, and one huge missed opportunity, Stefano Pioli took out Olivier Giroud last night at Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi and brought on Origi.
It was the first time Divock was given meaningful playing time since arriving in the summer, as he’d been struggling with an injury since last May, and it was Origi’s arguably best game for the Rossoneri.
While he didn’t score or assist, the Belgian moved well, got into dangerous areas and worked for the team. Despite not doing overall too well, Milan won the game 2-1 thanks to an own goal from Miguel Veloso (10′) and a Sandro Tonali goal in the 81′ minute from an Ante Rebić assist.
“I feel good, it was good coming back from injury well to get some rhythm and help the team,” Origi told DAZN at the end of the match. “It was a difficult game and we are happy with the three points. It was good to give a hand to the teammates.”
On why Milan found it difficult: “Verona play with big heart, they have quality, the stadium, we know that to be top in Serie A you have to dig deep and we showed our big heart too and that we are the strongest team on the Serie A pitches: we will have to continue to prove it in order to continue being Champions.”
On Giroud: “We need every single player, we all need to be in form, it feels amazing just to be in training and see the quality around, and it is unbelievable. The staff and the atmosphere with the fans at the stadium too. It’s a joy for me to be able to help the team and hopefully I will help to win as many games as possible.”
Speaking to MilanTV, Origi said: “We feel great, we worked hard to prepare this game, we knew it was going to be difficult and to come here and win this game shows a team spirit and shows that we want to fight and we want to get every point that we can get.”
On coming on: “It’s the game in which I’ve played the most since I’ve been here. I needed some time to get in shape. I’ve been available since the London match and since then I’ve got in more and more and played about 45 minutes.”
On having a full week to prepare for the next game: “It will be good for us to tactically reorganize and we focus because we know it will be a series of very important games, so for us I see it as a challenge: prepare ourselves and that’s what you prepare for in football – it’s to play these amazing games and we will do everything to be as successful as possible.”
How out of shape were you man when you came from ‘Pool?!
Best of luck for the rest of the campaign, we need some goals.