Italiano said: "Kouame was exhausted and we prepared not to risk playing him earlier, so we used Antonin Barak as a centre-forward, a role he has played before.
It was not easy to get this performance after three days, with long journeys. Winning is never easy or to be taken for granted, we needed these points.
We hope to get Nico Gonzalez, Jack Bonaventura and M'Bala Nzola back on Wednesday, but they were certainly not rested for the sake of it today.
"We lack precision upfront. We've also hit the woodwork more than any other team, so let's just admit our lack of precision has cost us victories and points. It's disappointing, but our objective was to stay in all the competitions and we're keeping that alive. It's not easy to play every three days and keep that focus, but we're doing it.
This is something to be proud of, still being in the semi-finals of two tournaments in May. We must all be motivated and ready, we need everybody to step up."