AC Milan midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu considers the second aim of his brace against Torino on Tuesday night was his finest at a Rossoneri shirt thus far.
Calhanoglu off the seat as Milan’s final substitute equalised with a superbly taken strike from a distance, and he did the exact same again in the second period of extra time to provide the Rossoneri the lead.
In the long run, it would be a match-winning brace in the Diavolo’s No.10 and what will hopefully indicate a transformation of fortunes.
“I am happy, but my team-mates and the staff constantly came before me, since the game has become the most important for us,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter if I start the match or come on, the staff always comes first. I did my job and I am glad I helped my team-mates. Now we’re in the semi-final against Juventus and it’ll be a tricky game as they’re strong. But there’s still time to work and enhance and let us see what happens.”
“All of them, but I love the one against Torino on the left as it’s not a simple target with me being right-footed, the left isn’t my foot but I struck it well.
The Turkey international has worked under Vincenzo Montella, Gennaro Gattuso, Marco Giampaolo, and Stefano Pioli — all of whom have had him as a crucial part of the side.
“I respect all of the coaches, I do my job and I just consider it. The number 10 is no longer as it once was, because if for instance, you see Liverpool with players such as Mane and Salah they do a terrific job in defence also,” he said.
“Now the creation has changed and that I also do this sort of work, I love to help out. Two weeks ago I hurt my calf, and I worked hard to get back to the field whenever possible. I believe I came back nicely.
“We did not have a fantastic match against Brescia but now the results depend. We want to keep winning and we just consider Sunday against Verona: we would like to succeed at home in front of our fans.
“Verona is a powerful team that runs a lot and plays a whole lot on 1v1 battles, it’ll be a hard game but we have to be calm.”
On the coming of Zlatan Ibrahimovic: “He’s a winner, he always helps us always spurs us to perform better. It’s great for us since he’s been here we’ve won many matches.”
Ante Rebic and Samu Castillejo are two players that have experienced a bit of a resurgence since the change to 4-4-2.
“I’ve always thought in Rebic, I knew him when he was in the Bundesliga,” Hakan said.
However, the two of them are in an unbelievable moment, they played with two-three games in the top level. We’re a team, we have to be united and then ultimately the result always comes.
“We always want to provide the 3 points to the lovers and until recently this didn’t occur. We know our fans are always there, but we hear it on the pitch when they’re angry and whistle. But we’re professionals, we have to play with heart and desire, not just for us but for everyone who is in Milan. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve done well, we hope to continue in this way.
“I believe in the second half of our fans encourage us we believe this, so we play motivated and this also occurred in the previous game.”
However, Calhanoglu won’t lose contact with them.
“We’re friends, I like this about football.”
