Milan made ‘fools’ of themselves at Verona

milan — AC Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso gave a brutally honest assessment of his team’s 3-0 defeat at lowly Verona on Sunday, saying his expensively-assembled side had made fools of themselves.

The defeat completed a miserable week for Milan after UEFA exposed the club’s financial worries on Friday and 18-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was left in tears after being insulted by fans at the San Siro on Wednesday.

Gattuso, who had not coached a Serie A team before he was appointed last month, said his side had started well but failed to react after falling behind in the 24th minute.

“Until the first goal, we played some good football and created plenty of chances,” the fiery former midfielder told reporters. “We need to understand why we collapsed like that ..... we don’t know how to react when we go behind. “There are no excuses, we made fools of ourselves,” he said. Milan, who spent more than 200 million euros ($235 million) during the transfer window, were left seventh in Serie A with 24 points from 17 games seven wins, three draws and seven defeats.

The decision to fire Vincenzo Montella in November and promote Gattuso from the youth team coaching role has failed to produce an improvement with one win, one draw and one defeat since the change.

On Friday, UEFA rejected Milan’s request for a voluntary agreement that would have temporarily exempted the club from European football’s break even rule known as Financial Fair Play. —