Portuguese coach has won his first title with the Italian club
Portuguese coach Sérgio Conceição could hardly have hoped for a better start to his AC Milan career, having led the ‘Rossoneri’ to an epic 3-2 comeback win after being down two goals in the Italian Super Cup final on Monday (January 6) against city rivals Inter.
Lautaro Martínez and Taremi gave Inter the lead with goals at the end of the first half and start of the second, but Theo Hernández and Christian Pulisic helped equalise before the game-winning goal by Tammy Abraham in stoppage time.
The 50-year-old coach had already celebrated a major 2-1 victory over Juventus in the semi-finals just days after replacing fellow Portuguese Paulo Fonseca as AC Milan’s new head coach.
Conceição, who ended his seven-season stint with FC Porto last summer, admitted that the last few months before accepting his new job at AC Milan were “difficult”.
“But I’m here now and I’m happy,” he told reporters after the Super Cup win. “I’m very happy for my players. It wasn’t easy, we did not have much time to work on the details which are important to me. The merit is all theirs, because they listened to my instructions. There is still a lot of work to do, but with humility we can achieve good things in the Champions League and Italian league,” he said.
Conceição has also gone ‘viral’ for recreating his iconic cigar and dance celebration after Monday’s victory, which he had already made headlines for after winning the Portuguese league with FC Porto in 2022.
