Allegri proud of Milan character

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri was delighted his side answered their critics in a 3-2 away win against Roma on Saturday.

A brace from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a header from Alessandro Nesta were enough for the champions to notch up their fourth Serie A win in a row, despite goals from Nicolas Burdisso and Bojan Krkic for the home team.

“Today the team have a good response to everyone. We didn’t suffer very much, although Roma’s late goal kept the game in the balance to the end,” Allegri said.

“When we had to soak up pressure, we stayed united and I really liked that approach.”

The former Cagliari man then turned his attentions to Ibrahimovic, praising the Swede, along with his goalkeeper Christian Abbiati.

“Zlatan Ibrahimovic was fantastic today and the same goes for Christian Abbiati, who made a very important save. It’s just a shame we conceded on a corner and weren’t decisive enough on the second,” he added.

“The important thing was to win and the victory takes us closer to the top, but even more so this was our first head-to-head victory after two defeats against Napoli and Juventus.”

“Now, we have to focus on the Champions League, then we are going to prepare ourselves for the match against Catania.”

Roma boss Luis Enrique, meanwhile, lamented the gulf in class between Milan and his own team, who were beaten for the third match out of four.

“We never had a chance to win this game,” he said.

“There was too much difference between Milan and Roma. We lacked the incisive cutting edge in the opening half and we didn’t have the right concentration throughout the game.”

“We struggled to defend from dead ball situations and allowed (Alessandro) Nesta to score Milan’s second as though he was in his own house.”

“We are not yet a big team and we must improve. We are lacking many things.”

“Milan has a lot of experience and we don’t.”