MILAN – Sinisa Mihajlovic looked on the positive side after the rossoneri’s goalless draw with Atalanta on Saturday night. This is what he and Niang had to say in the wake of the match:

SINISA MIHAJLOVIC (to the Milan Channel)
“It’s been a while since Poli, Mexes and Niang have started and played a full match and we knew we might have paid the price for this. However, this is a point earned and we have to look at the glass half-full. We didn’t lose and we kept a clean sheet. Now we have the international break and we can recover some of the injured players. The season ahead is still long.
Donnarumma today made three excellent saves and that’s what he is there for. He played well. We could have done a bit better in defence, but when you have 3 or 4 players that aren’t yet fully match-fit, you can pay the price but luckily we didn’t suffer because we had Donnarumma who saved the result for us.
I aim to win every match and I always try to get the very best from situations. Our biggest problem at the moment is trying to get back the injured players.” 

M’BAYE NIANG
“I tried to give my absolute all. I knew I didn’t have the full 90 minutes in me, but I gave all that I had while I could. I am pleased with my performance, but I could have done more, but I am still lacking in match-fitness. I have always enjoyed playing on the left and I know that role well. I often tried to take on and beat my man. Serie A is difficult and Atalanta played a good match tonight. They came here and they played well. We didn’t win, but we have collected a point and it could turn out to be important.
We now have to go to Turin (versus Juventus in the next match, editor’s note) with the same mentality that we had for the match versus Lazio. We have two weeks to prepare for the match against Juventus.
We see every day what Donnarumma is capable of. Today he saved us, we have to congratulate him and he deserves all the praise.” 

SINISA MIHAJLOVIC (press conference)
“Let’s focus on the positives: we didn’t concede and we have extended our unbeaten run. Atalanta deserved more, but seeing our situation, and I don’t want to look for excuses, we were still able to come away with a point. We sorely missed Bertolacci, Bonaventura and Alex. Those that came in and replaced them, Niang, Poli and Mexes, did well while they had the physical strength. They hadn’t played 90 minutes this season and a drop in fitness was to be expected. Some of our other players meanwhile such as Montolivo hadn’t trained much this week either.
When you can’t come away with the win, the main thing is to avoid defeat. We now have the international break and it comes at the right time. We can recuperate physical and mental energy seeing as we have used up a lot lately.
Donnarumma is there to make saves and today he had to deal with more shots than in the other matches. In the first half we struggled, but we didn’t give away anything. After the restart, we conceded chances. But we didn’t sit back. I brought on another striker because we wanted to risk it and go for the win. This has to be our mentality.”