AC Milan coach Vincenzo Montella was delighted with what he saw from his team during Wednesday night's pre-season friendly against Chelsea, even though the game ended in a 3-1 defeat for the Rossoneri.
Goals from Bertrand Traore and Oscar (2) gave the English side the victory, with Giacomo Bonaventura's equaliser for Milan only consolatory in the end. But Montella was stilleager to take the positives from the performance after the final whistle in Minnesota.
"I'm really pleased with the performance," he is quoted as saying by Football Italia.
"It's a shame about the score, but the disappointment will be gone tomorrow morning, while the performance remains. I say this with great conviction," he added.
"We created very much and held ourselves well on the pitch. For 70 minutes I saw no difference between the two teams, in fact I liked Milan better.
"Let's not forget that we were facing an excellent team and a great Coach, who knows how to get into the head of his players. Conte has a great group. But we're developing, so I feel satisfied."
Montella, who earned his stripes as a manager at Catania, before moving on to Fiorentina and Sampdoria, is Milan's fifth new coach in two years, following Clarence Seedorf, Filippo Inzaghi, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Cristian Brocchi into the job since Massimiliano Allegri left in 2014.
Milan have consistently finished outside the top six in that time, with 8th, 10th and 7th places to show. The club hasn't played European football since 2014 and the pressure is firmly on Montella and his coaching staff to turn things around.