Olivier Ground insists that he was always confident Rafael Leao would remain an AC Milan player despite links with a move to Chelsea.
Leao lit up the Milan derby as the Rossoneri earned a 3-2 victory, netting a brace while laying on for teammate Giroud in the second half.
90min previously revealed that Chelsea had held talks with Milan over bringing the Portuguese winger to Stamford Bridge this summer.
However, Giroud, who traded Chelsea for the Rossoneri last year, says he never feared that Leao would depart the club this summer.
“I was not worried about him. I knew he would remain here. We’ve got many young players, but every day it is a pleasure to work with these talents,” Giroud told DAZN.
On the derby result, he said, “There is so much energy, we had to celebrate at the end! We wanted to celebrate all together, we have a fantastic group with a wonderful team spirit and great cohesion.
“When it was 3-1 up, we had to kill off the game, but in the end Dzeko made it 3-2. We did well to hold out at the end, it was a great performance from our defenders, everyone worked hard to ensure we didn’t leave spaces between the lines, because we saw what damage Inter could do.”
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Leao was named Serie A’s Most Valuable Player last season after playing an instrumental in Milan’s title success, netting 11 goals and laying on ten assists.
The 23-year-old has already enjoyed a productive start to this league campaign, recording five goal involvements in his first five appearances in the league.
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