Pioli said: "We had a few problems in the first half, should've made more courageous choices, instead we allowed Roma too much space. We created a few chances, but conceded on a corner and they were smarter than us in that situation, these are things that can weigh on a tie.
Then we didn't have the same sharpness and style that we had recently. A draw would've been the right result, but there is a second leg where the team can do better and sort some things out.
Honestly, we did not expect El Shaarawy on the right, but it didn't make much difference. They were trying to create less space for Theo and Leao, but we moved it over to the other side and developed moves there. We had lots of shots, but without that quality and precision we needed at this level.
I liked the second half more, certainly, we were more solid and alert. You need to take more risks against a quality opponent, that's what we did, and we just lacked that moment in front of goal to at least get a draw."
On the second-leg, he added: I am not worried. I expect all of us to prove we are a great team. It won't be easy to overturn this result, only a strong team can do it, strong mentally, tactically and technically we can do it.
We need to do better. I won't say it has to be a huge undertaking, because winning away to Roma should not be considered a huge undertaking for us, but we can certainly do better."