Leonardo Bonucci has admitted ‘my performances on the pitch didn’t coincide with the real me’ at the start of the season, but now he targets a place in the Champions League and looks forward to Sunday’s Derby.

Milan is in a very good moment currently and the unbeaten run is still ongoing.

Defensively the team is one of the best teams in Italy right now, only conceding four goals in the last 13 games, and yesterday against Lazio (match ended 0-0 and the Rossoneri won after penalties) Milan got their sixth consecutive clean sheet and victory.

The defense has finally clicked and Leonardo Bonucci seems to be back to his old self. These performances are what the club was expecting from the Italian center back and now the results are here. The appointment of Gennaro Gattuso as head coach seems to have been the turning point.

“Winning helps to win,” center back Bonucci told Sky Italia in an interview on Thursday evening. “But Gattuso is right, we have to stay grounded. What happened in the past is in the past. Now I’m looking ahead, with the conviction of being a team that can take on anyone.

“If the Champions League is an objective? Yes, it is and I believe that this team has what it takes to achieve what was a goal of ours from the beginning of the season.”

Even when it seemed impossible, Bonucci didn’t lose hope: “I always believed in the impossible, I worked hard and fought to reach big objectives. On a personal level and with the team I played before, I got important results by putting in work and sacrifice. Since October people were saying we were doomed, but I will keep believing in it until mathematics tell me otherwise.

“I always had confidence in this team, in the project and in Gattuso. He has shown, despite being young and not having a lot of experience [he is the active coach with the least matches coached in Serie A at the moment], that he knows how to make the team play football. What impressed me the most was how he is able to transmit the hunger that he himself had as a player.

“He has made us feel important, from the first to the last. If Gattuso is comparable to Conte [who was mentioned as one of the coach Milan were considering for next year]? It’s obvious that for the charisma, the determination and the ferocity he transmits to team team, he reminds me of Conte.”

In the end he was asked, if he ever asked himself in the beginning of the season ‘why have I done this?’ (changing clubs from Juventus to Milan): “Honestly yes, my performances on the pitch didn’t coincide with the real Bonucci, because the head steers a lot, if not everything.

“Then I re-centered myself, worked, thought more about me than about the rest, I increased the confidence in myself. I put myself there and with inner strength I believed in the choice I have made. Now I am super concentrated and motivated to grow and to be an important player for the team.”

On MilanTV the defender talked about the upcoming derby (Sunday, 20:45 CET): “The derby is a special match, but we are concentrated on our goal, which is to win and get closer to the Champions League spots. It will be a difficult game, Inter will be more confident after beating Benevento compared to previous weeks. We will need to stay focused, I’m sure we will score at least a goal.

“I think that playing a derby in San Siro is different than in other stadiums, because you have 60-70k people who push and cheer. They transmit the passion and the love for this shirt. We have to catalyze these emotions in order to respond on the pitch by playing a great match and getting the win.”