Speaking to Sky Sport after Friday's league phase draw, the Bournemouth sporting director admitted his excitement at facing his compatriot Ruben Amorim, who has been in charge of AC Milan since the summer.
"I'm very happy for our club: it's a great joy to be in this competition," Pinto said. "The game with Milan will be the biggest match in Bournemouth's history, it will also be a special game for me, against my friend Ruben Amorim, but we will try to fight and win."
Pinto, the former Roma general manager, also discussed the summer arrival of goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio, who joined from Juventus after a difficult spell in Turin.
"Yes, 100 per cent," Pinto said when asked if Di Gregorio could be Bournemouth's first-choice goalkeeper. "When you represent a club as big as Juventus there are good and bad moments, the pressure is different.
"We wanted to have two strong goalkeepers, because the season is long and we wanted to give our coach the chance to grow. Michele is strong, we know him well: when the opportunity came up, it was easy to decide to bet on him, for what he can give us."
Asked whether Juventus and Milan remain the teams to beat in Italy, Pinto defended the reputation of Serie A more broadly.
"I think so," he said. "When you talk about European competitions, the Italian sides are always there: I hear a lot of criticism of Italian football, but Inter reached two Champions League finals, Roma won the Conference League, Atalanta won the Europa League. Even though they're going through a different phase, for me they are the two teams to beat."
Pinto was also asked about Rayan, the Brazilian forward who resisted transfer interest over the summer to remain at Bournemouth for a second season.
"Yes, he came back charged up from the World Cup," Pinto said. "He has something very particular that will help him a lot: he's really humble, he's someone who works really hard. Often there are Brazilians with a lot of talent, but who aren't so comfortable when it comes to working physically. Rayan is totally different: with so much noise during the summer, with clubs interested, he always told me, through his agent, that he didn't want to hear other proposals because he felt he needed to spend another year at Bournemouth to develop.
"Technically he's strong, but physically he's powerful and I think he'll have an incredible career."
Pinto, who left AS Roma to take up his role on the south coast, was finally asked whether he misses Italian football.
"No," he said. "I miss Italy as a country, but I never tell lies and I've been criticised many times for telling the truth: I can't say I miss Italian football, because my dream was always to go to the Premier League. I miss Rome, as a city and as fans, but I'm happy at Bournemouth."