AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli defended his players after their defeat to Inter Milan.

The result confirmed Inter as Serie A champions.

Pioli said: “I tried to raise the morale of the lads, as clearly it's a painful defeat for everything that is behind it. I tried as much as possible to reassure my players, because we need to end the season well, we have another important game on Saturday,.

“Unfortunately, we were again unable to even get a draw in this derby.

“The priority was to take away the parity of the two against two in attack and find space for the counter-attacks. We went behind, I think Inter hurt us only on that corner and the counter-attacks, but when you are chasing the game, you have to take risks.

“We had a good situation with Rafa, but we wanted to defend deeper to avoid what happened in the second half with the Thuram goal. The team fought with determination and desire, we didn't have that little pinch of luck that could've given us a draw, because we did create the chances."