Thilo Kehrer struck late for Monaco as they won 1-0 on Tuesday night.
Afterwards, Italiano conceded it was learning experience for his battling squad.
A generous performance wasn't enough. Why?
"Because we can't put that little bit extra into the final pass and finishing. Today the first half wasn't good, then we fixed something in the second and the boys were very good. We conceded a goal on a dead ball... It's a shame because in my opinion we didn't deserve it. We lost against a strong team that doesn't make you think and in the first half it was clear. We lacked the goal, but for me the performance was positive."
Sinisa Mihajlovic used to say 'my team is good but it doesn't dance'. After a performance like that, is the good or the risk of having the fact that it doesn't dance on you more?
"There are no risks because tomorrow we will open the Roma chapter convinced that we played a great game again today and knowing that we weren't able to convert goal opportunities. In this competition we play against teams that are better than us and that aren't showing it 100% because we are good at putting them in difficulty.
"We have to seize the positives. We will hold firm. I have just looked at the four clear situations with the staff to take the lead and if we don't have the ability to put it in, there is a final 'blunder'. However, there is no risk: starting tomorrow we will prepare for Roma, a difficult game that we will analyze carefully to 'go dancing somewhere'. Sinisa was right, but I think that seeing the boys complain in the Champions League means that we are doing something good."
How did you prepare for tonight's match in attack?
"We prepared this match in training camp, not yesterday, because we did 48 minutes of training and 20 of video. This match was prepared with our principles. Up front we had a team that doesn't let you play, then in the second half we took the measure and on a few occasions we just lacked the ability to put it in. However, we also have to consider the opponent: physically Monaco is very strong and it's not easy to play against players like that. In any case I'm happy because before the matches I think I suffer more than we suffer afterwards. We wanted to give Bologna the first 4 points, but not all is lost yet."
Why were there some moments of great difficulty?
"We play against strong teams that don't provide reference points. This happened in the first half, then in the second we improved some aspects including recovering balls in the midfield and counterattacks. Being able to straighten out some aspects even during the game is another step in growth."
Did you lose this match due to inexperience?
"This is the match, there's nothing to say. We had trouble at the beginning because you play against teams you don't know, then in the second half you sort out the situations and things improve. Today we had to rest Orsolini who was walking yesterday in the finishing touches and we put in fresh players... I repeat, we play against teams that are qualitatively and physically strong. If you go and look at the chances, there are Monaco's mistakes on the chances for us: but if we don't score we don't highlight them."