Cagliari coach Walter Mazzarri insists defeat to AC Milan was undeserved.

Ismael Bennacer struck a second-half winner for the Serie A leaders.

“I was furious with the referee and saw nothing, I knocked down three doors on my way back to the dressing room, so I was already gone by that stage," Mazzarri told Sky Italia.

“We did not deserve to lose, as we had those chances with Pavoletti, Joao Pedro, we had seven or eight men in the opposition penalty area.

“Naturally, we didn't have many chances in the first half, as they closed all the spaces. It's true Milan have remarkable quality, which we saw with the goal, but Cagliari did enough to deserve a point.

“I thought we should've had a penalty when Maignan punched Lovato in the back of the head, Lovato got to the ball first, so that was a penalty in my view. Nobody even considered the fact Lovato was down clutching the back of his head.

“If Lovato gets the ball and then gets punched in the head… What is VAR for, then? You can see it so clearly, the back of his head moves. Theo Hernandez also should've been booked for diving in the penalty area. We lost a point. Fine. Let's move on.

“I told the lads, if you play like this again in future and not just against Milan, you will win plenty of games.

“Anything can still happen, teams of our level have been able to win against Milan without playing as well as we did this evening, but in these situations you need a bit of luck too."