Ahead of Stade Rennais’ clash with AC Milan, goalkeeper Steve Mandanda has spoken to the media about the game and his French counterparts.
Mandanda is truly a veteran of the game, with 600 appearances across an almost 20 years of senior football. With this, he will be looked at for mentorship if Rennes are to come away from the San Siro with a positive result, and continue their recent form.
In the 2017-18 season, he assisted Marseille in their route to the Europa League final, where they lost to Atletico Madrid and his manager, Julien Stephan will be relying on him to make the Rennes squad aware of the levels required to go deep in the competition.
The Frenchman recently extended his deal with Rennes until the summer of 2025, signifying his importance to the club.
Mandanda spoke to the press in the San Siro press conference room about the importance of the game, his role as captain and playing once again at San Siro. His words have been relayed by MilanNews.
Have you heard from Maignan? Is he, in your opinion, the strongest goalkeeper in the world?
“I think I will hear him tonight, I get on very well with Mike, I appreciate him a lot, both the man and the goalkeeper. He’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world: he’s complete, in goal, in reading the game, in playing with his feet, he’s one of the best for me.”
Do you also know Theo and Giroud very well?
“I know them, Mike as well as Theo and Olivier… But my teammates know them too. We prepared ourselves with the videos, we know what to expect: we have to be attentive to all the Milan players because they are all players of great quality.”
Playing at San Siro…
“I’ve played here twice, once against AC Milan and once against Inter. It’s a legendary stadium and it’s always a joy to play matches like this. I hope it can have a positive outcome tomorrow”.
On the number of fans following the team at San Siro…
“This shows the improvement of the team. Even in our stadium we have an important tifo. We are very happy about that. The only thing we want is to be able to share this experience with them and play a great game tomorrow.”
On the first leg and the return leg…
“Calculations don’t need to be made at the start of the game, we have to see how the situation will evolve. Then we have to be smart but there will be no calculations in the pre-match. We have to give our all and be ourselves.”
Good luck milan