AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli was happy after their 5-1 win against Sampdoria.

Olivier Giroud struck a hat-trick with Rafael Leao and Brahim Diaz also scoring for the Rossonero.

“It was good for us to play, as we had to get the disappointment out of our Champions League elimination. We scored lots of goals and that can only help our confidence going forward in Serie A," Pioli told Sky Italia.

“There are two matches to play, then we'll see where we end up. Clearly, we went beyond expectations in the Champions League where last year we went out in the group phase, but just as clearly, we wanted to go all the way and did not do as well as expected in Serie A.

“We were too inconsistent in Serie A and we failed to win too many of the games like this one. Now we have Juventus coming up, we'll try to prepare and remember that when we play good football, we can do really well."

He added, “I am proud of the work we are doing all together. The highs were wonderful, the lows were painful, but we know what we want to do, we know who we are and will try to continue growing to make these marvellous fans happy. The team had ups and downs this season, but the fans only had ups, they always stood by us and behaved impeccably."