Stefano Pioli said his AC Milan players needed every ounce of remaining energy to earn a 3-2 win at Fiorentina on Sunday and targeted a winning run to keep the Serie A title in reach.
The Rossoneri suffered a Europa League last-16 elimination against Manchester United on Thursday, but bounced back with a thrilling win in Florence.
Victory left Pioli’s side six points behind leaders Inter in second place, albeit having played one more game, and Pioli was pleased to hear that his top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic had targeted the title in a post-match interview.
“Ibra is right to talk about the Scudetto,” Pioli told Sky Italia.
“We must try to win all our games, our future depends on us and we have the qualities to try and win every single game. They will all be difficult.
“We started out with different objectives, but now we are up there. We have broken a lot of records, but if we don’t do well in the next few games it won’t lead to anything.
“There are seven very strong teams, four of them will be happy at the end and three less so.”
Milan’s European exit came after a 1-0 loss at San Siro sealed a 2-1 aggregate defeat to United.
With domestic and continental fixtures piling up in the last few weeks, Pioli admitted that his side's energy is flagging.
“There was strong disappointment as we wanted to progress, but the two performances gave us more motivation and assuredness,” he said.
“This was the most difficult game, the guys scraped the bottom of the barrel to find the last drop of strength.”
(Reporting by Alasdair Mackenzie; Editing by Toby Davis)
