AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli was pleased with the character shown for their 3-1 defeat of Parma.

The victory at the Stadio Tardini was very hard fought, because after Ante Rebic and Franck Kessie goals, Ibrahimovic saw red for dissent an hour in.

They held on for the three points and Rafael Leao came off the bench to seal the result.

“I like it when my players respect and reflect the same sensations we have in the staff. It was a delicate week because we knew that we weren't up to Milan standards against Sampdoria and had to deliver today.

“Parma are tough to play, we messed things up ourselves at one stage, but the important thing was to win," the coach told Sky Sport Italia.

“The statistics show we do better away from home. It's strange and we are evaluating the reasons, but the games are quite similar when playing behind closed doors.

“We want to take Milan back into the Champions League, we've got strong competition from Juventus, Atalanta, Napoli, Lazio and Roma, so we have to take it one game at a time and keep going.

“These are all teams capable of winning eight or nine in a row, so we can take absolutely nothing for granted. Maybe we wasted too much time and energy thinking about the future or other situations. If you think too much about the game in a month's time, you won't focus enough on the one that is coming up.

“We need to get back to the points average we had at the start of the season, but we can only do that if we take it one game at a time."