AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli admits “dangerous” Liverpool had too much physical might for his team in their Champions League showdown.
The Reds came from 2-1 behind at half-time to open Group B with a 3-2 win over the Italian side at Anfield on Wednesday.
Liverpool dominated for much of the game but were cut apart twice shortly before the break by goals from Ante Rebic and Brahim Diaz.
And Pioli believes Milan can take heart from their performance despite it underlining where they remain inferior to the Reds.
“We played a really tough opponent and we put in a huge effort right to the very end,” he said. “It is pretty indicative of the level we have achieved thus far.
“Liverpool are at a high level but we are not quite there yet. We will use this game to develop further and to gain experience in this competition.
“Liverpool are dangerous. Probably we could have done a bit more but the level of our opponents really punished us on those occasions, that’s why we paid for the errors we made.
“They played a game of high quality and high intensity and in certain situations we weren’t just up to it from a physical point of view. We tried to withstand all of that and maybe not as well as we could have done.
“Conceding the goal at 2-2 gave them the opportunity to go at us right until the very end.”
Pioli added: “We were very good after the first 25 minutes, when we found ourselves having a tough time.
“We went into the lead and were a couple of inches way from going 3-1 up and that might have changed things and taken things away from Liverpool.
“Obviously 3-2 is something we regret to a certain extent. It is a shame we got caught out with that set-piece towards the end.
“We are the youngest team in the group so coming up against a team like Liverpool is a huge challenge.
“We are playing against a really good team used to playing at this level. If we play as a team we can give anybody a game at this level.”
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