The result does not reflect Milan's performance, insists Gattuso

Gennaro Gattuso called on AC Milan's players to take the 4-0 defeat to Juventus in the Coppa Italia final on the chin and come back stronger.

The Rossoneri kept their opponents quiet before the break at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, only to suffer a second-half meltdown to lose heavily.

Juventus scored three goals in a stunning eight-minute spell to seize control of the game, defender Medhi Benatia netting two of them as Milan crumbled under pressure at set-piece situations.

Gianluigi Donnarumma also endured a game to forget, the teenage goalkeeper allowing Douglas Costa's shot to slip through his grasp before dropping an easy catch to present Benatia with the chance to make it 3-0.

Milan's misery was complete when substitute Nikola Kalinic headed into his own net, though Gattuso felt the final score was not a fair reflection of his team's performance.

"Football is like that. The result does not reflect the performance, but you pay for errors," he told Rai Sport. 

"For 56 minutes, we did what we had to and Juventus never troubled us, other than a [Mario] Mandzukic header.

"But we have to accept it and realise we made our own errors - we must accept them.

"I'm also a young coach. I am learning. I make mistakes and have to figure out where we have gone wrong to improve.

"We shouldn't look at the 4-0 result, but rather how we lost it and what we can do to improve."

Having missed out on an opportunity to secure a place in next season's Europa League, Milan will now hope to qualify for the competition via the Serie A. They sit sixth in the table with two games to go, starting with Sunday's trip to Atalanta.