He defended his men after a 2-1 home loss to the Russians, which had no impact on the Nerazzurri' s qualification top of the Champions League group.

　　"We achieved qualification a round early and this makes me happy," he was quoted as saying by football-italia.net.

　　"This evening we tried with all our strength, creating four or five scoring opportunities, but at this moment we are unlucky. I could not have asked for more from my players in terms of their desire to fight back, but luck is against us at the moment.

　　"When it' s like that and the ball doesn' t want to go in, we just have to wait. Sooner or later, it will turn our way.

　　"We have many problems to resolve and there was some naivety this evening, but I wasn' t unhappy with the performance. There were many lads notching up experience and I can' t complain about how my team played. I cannot say we didn' t have the determined approach I was looking for," he said.