AC Milan boss Massimiliano Allegri was in a philosophical mood after his side exited the UEFA Champions League at the last 16 stage after Barcelona won the return leg 4-0 on Wednesday.
Having won the first leg 2-0, Allegri admitted Milan had “great expectations” but it all went wrong with Lionel Messi in sparkling form, with two first-half goals. David Villa and Jordi Alba added further goals to round out a 4-2 aggregate win.
“We are sad because we had great expectations after the first leg,” Allegri said.
“Football is like that; in the first leg we were lucky when we scored our first goal, tonight we were unlucky when we hit the post at a crucial moment of the game.
“Barcelona have great players like Messi and Iniesta who can dribble past any defenders easily, even after running for 90 minutes. But my players never gave up, even after Barcelona’s third goal.”
Allegri had high praise for Barca particularly after an outstanding opening 30 minutes.
“In the first half-hour Barcelona played extraordinarily well. They were very good especially in pressing us high, making it very difficult for us to come out from our own half with the ball,” he said.
“They scored three of their four goals after we lost possession with bad mistakes. Football is also a matter of centimetres because we hit the post when we could have made it 1-1 and a few moments later they scored the second with a ball going between the legs of our defender.”