Philippe Mexes meanwhile chatted to the Corriere dello Sport: “On the terrorist attacks, there is little to say… it is all desperately sad. I have children and I am very concerned. In a world like this, you cannot make plans, you cannot plan for anything. Milan? I am in my fifth year. I have seen some big changes. From the Milan of Nesta, Seedorf, Inzaghi, Ambrosini, Gattuso to the one of today which hasn’t done well and which doesn’t yet have a winning spirit like the one before. While I am not Maldini or Nesta, I have tried to play my part on and off the pitch.”

Riccardo Montolivo to the Turin-based daily Tuttosport: “These matches with Juve are like a derby, they are events that motivate you and cause a special feeling inside and a desire to impress. But the outcome of Juve-Milan won’t be decisive: the season ahead is still long.”

The skipper again, but this time to the Repubblica: “There will always be criticism. Perhaps we are lacking something in terms of determination. But Mihajlovic has improved a lot of areas in which we struggled last season. He has ironed out a lot of our weaknesses: it’s not easy to resolve a lot of things right away, but he has already done a great deal. We made a bad start and we are playing catch up. But in between the two international breaks, the results and performances have started to arrive, with the exception of the Atalanta match. Unfortunately, that is the match stuck in people’s minds. We are going through a positive period and it will be a great match versus Juventus.”

Again Donnarumma, but to the Milanese paper Corriere della Sera: “The best save that I have ever witnessed was the one made by Diego Lopez on Marchisio last season in Turin. Milan? I chose to come here and not Inter partly because my brother played here and partly because I have always been a Milan fan. I always wanted to be a goalkeeper. I started on a pitch near my home and I never had any other dream.”

On Friday and in Tuttosport, Giacomo Bonaventura said the following: “It’s not a decisive match because there is still a long way to go until the end of the season, but having said that, Milan cannot afford to lose these type of matches. We need to win and send a strong sign to the rest of the league: we want to open up a gap between ourselves and Juventus in the table.”

Montolivo also had his thoughts published again in the Italian media on Friday. This time the skipper was speaking to Sky and Il Giornale: “I think that Mihajlovic has done a sterling job in working on and improving upon our weak areas from the past few years. I also played under him 5 years ago at Fiorentina and he has grown since then. He is a lot more complete as a coach and one of the best in Italy. He is the ideal coach for the Milan of today and I believe he has had an excellent impact at the club. It’s not easy to coach at Milan. It’s not easy either to start off from a difficult situation like ours. Balotelli? He takes training and the rules more seriously and is punctual. Now he has to focus on getting better: we’re missing his decisive contributions.”

More from the club captain: “The match with Juve is worth much more than 3 points. A win would give us confidence, belief and that is exactly what we need. The bianconceri have lost three world class players, but as a group, they remain scarily good. They can get back into the title fight. The match with Juve is not a last-chance saloon, but a defeat would complicate matters for the losers. We need to be focused and aggressive like we were versus Lazio. A win in Turin would show this team has what it takes. I hope Cerci plays a key role. He is going through a positive period, but he is yet to find the back of the net. The turning point for me and the team came in the derby. Both the team and I put in a good performance. De Jong? At the moment he is the one that is more penalised. However, we can both play together. Contract renewal? It’s not the priority at the moment but I want to continue here at Milan.”