Alessandro Costacurta is impressed by summer signing Ricardo Oliveira and trusts that the striker can do well with the Rossoneri.
“He is an excellent player, I followed him when he was with Betis and when he played the qualifiers for the Copa Libertadores,” he said of Andriy Shevchenko’s replacement.
“As to his character, I admit I don’t know him much from a personal point of view, but my Brazilian teammates have said good things about him. He is very talented, a few days ago he tried to dribble past me during training and he actually managed to. Joking, I told him that he better wear his shin pads next time.”
Costacurta is still a reference point for Milan’s defence and he confirmed himself as a leader during the summer matches, including the Champions League preliminary round against Red Star Belgrade.
“We are finally about to begin the new season, I was anxious to start,” said the former Azzurri star. “We have been working well and I think that the preliminaries actually helped us to improve our condition.”
Milan start the season with an eight-point handicap, so it’ll be particularly crucial to get a good Week 1 result against Lazio on Sunday afternoon.
“Our opening match with Lazio will be difficult, they are an aggressive side which base most of their game on physical strength. They have signed Pasquale Foggia, they have Ayodele Makinwa and they reinforced their midfield with Cristian Ledesma, I am sure they will give us a hard time,” concluded Costacurta.