Milan victory for the fans, says Guardiola

Massimiliano Allegri, Milan coach
The lads played a pretty good game tonight. In matches like this it is easy to make mistakes, but our performance was important for our morale and also to gauge where we are compared with other teams. If we had played differently I would have been less satisfied. You know Barcelona will usually create something. However, in the first half we created plenty of chances of our own.

Barça have a lot of high-quality players but we competed well. Now we will concentrate on the league before we get ready for the knockout phase. Robinho did well in the first half, he showed good movement and was unlucky not to score. Pato needs time to recover his best form as he played just 20 minutes at the weekend and is still far from his best.

Josep Guardiola, Barcelona coach
We competed well. We wanted to finish top of the group so that we have the opportunity to rest [ahead of the game against Real Madrid CF on 10 December]. The important thing is that the fans enjoyed tonight's game. If the supporters are entertained then that is what it is all about because they are who we play for.

To play tonight with three across the back you have to look to dominate and take control of the game just as we did in the first half. Having said that, you are never going to dominate a match for 90 minutes and win easily at San Siro. Milan are used to competing well and they only need a small chance to score.

We were the better team on the night. It was an important win. I felt before the game that they would play against us in the same way as they did in the first game [at the Camp Nou] when they closed us out from the inside. That is why we started with [Lionel] Messi on the right but they took advantage of their full-backs when attacking us. For that reason we had to ask Thiago [Alcántara] to play more defensively and he fought and worked hard. He is a player with great self esteem and he feels strong. His audacious attitude helps him to feel confident in whatever position he plays.

We played a great game. We took risks while attacking. We had a lot of the play and many chances but this is the San Siro and when you come to play at a stadium like this you start thinking beforehand about taking out an attacker and defending a bit more. At the end we opted to play the way we did.