Milan Boss Gennaro Gattuso Points to 'Too Many Mistakes' as Key Reason Behind UEL Loss to Arsenal

Gennaro Gattuso admitted that his AC Milan side "didn't play as a team" as they were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal in the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie on Thursday night.

Goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey handed Arsene Wenger's side a comfortable lead ahead of the return leg at the Emirates Stadium in a week's time.

Football Italia quote Gattuso in his post match press conference as saying: “We knew this was going to be a very difficult match.

“Arsenal were coming off a tough moment, but have enormous quality at their disposal, while we made too many mistakes. We never played like a united team and Arsenal deserved the victory."

Reflecting on the match Gattuso went on to add: “We could’ve done more, but we didn’t play as a team, so every time they attacked, it was a danger. Playing at this level is new to many of these lads, so we look forward without losing confidence. It was an off day and Arsenal deserved it. We’ll learn from this."

The Milan boss also bemoaned the ease with which Arsenal were able to cut through his side's defence at times, saying: “I expected Wenger to approach the game this way and it was our mistake giving Arsenal too much space. We allowed them to burst through our lines too easily and were always a man short."

Before the return leg next Thursday, Milan travel to mid-table Genoa in Serie A next Thursday, as they look to maintain their faint hopes of guaranteeing a Champions League spot with a top four finish in league finish this season.