AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli admits he was left frustrated after their Coppa Italia quarterfinal against Atalanta.

Rafael Leao gave Milan the lead, but Teun Koopmeiners equalised a minute later before successfully converting a penalty later.

"I think we played a very good first half, deservedly took the lead, and then were extremely naïve. We should've defended much better on the equaliser, but the truth is that the game changed with a non-existent penalty," Pioli told Mediaset.

“After that, we lost our heads, lost our shape and our control of the game. We struggled to take back that balance and control we had in the first half."

He also said: “It is honestly difficult, there is so much debate on VAR, but that was not a penalty because our player got the ball first, because the Atalanta player was going down even before the contact. It's a negative evening.

“We could've reacted better. I do understand the frustration of the players going 2-1 down like that after doing well, but there was still plenty of time to get back into it and we didn't take those chances that we created.

“It's really a pity, as it was a balanced encounter and that incident completely changed the game."