"The better team go out." That was the verdict of Gazzetta dello Sport, expressed in no uncertain terms in their front page headline, on Milan's 0-0 draw with Tottenham and subsequent exit from the Champions League. This was the third time in four years that Milan had been eliminated from the competition by an English side at the last-16 stage (and in the other year they had failed to qualify for the competition), but unlike last year, when they lost 7-2 on aggregate to Manchester United, the Italian press was mostly agreed that this time they had deserved better.

"The team who had deserved less from these 180 minutes went through," sighs Antonio Farinola in La Repubblica. "Spurs obtained qualification with the least strain possible, playing for one half out of four and hitting their opponents with one lethal counterattack during their best moment. For the rest [Harry] Redknapp's men appeared to have just one idea: crosses from deep or the wings for Crouch so he could knock the ball down for [Rafael] Van der Vaart. Little, very little. Enough, though, to secure a historic victory."

Over in Gazzetta, Luigi Garlando lamented the absence of Filippo Inzaghi, the all-time joint-top goalscorer in European competitions, who was ruled out for the season after damaging his cruciate ligaments against Palermo in November. "You want the immediate sensation after this game," he asks. "With Pippo Inzaghi healthy today Milan would be in the quarter-finals of the Champions League."

Inzaghi had already turned one game for Milan in this year's competition, scoring twice as the Rossoneri came from behind to lead Real Madrid but eventually draw at San Siro. Most reporters were agreed that he would at least have provided a greater threat than that posed by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

"There was a distracted young man wandering around the pitch at White Hart Lane and he could not even blame his condition on troublesome grass like that at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome," reflected Marco Ansaldo in La Stampa, making reference to a situation in Serie A last weekend when Lazio's Giuseppe Sculli had to be withdrawn after apparently suffering an allergic reaction to the pitch. "Ibra's allergy is to the climate in the cups, now there is proof. A match like that which Milan drew 0-0 in London would have had a different outcome if there had been the slightest trace of the Swede who has been so decisive in the league."

Tuttosport made the same point more succinctly with the front-page banner reading "Ibra betrays", while Corriere della Sera's Mario Sconcerti drew unflattering comparisons with the opposition. "No Tottenham player is worth as much as Ibrahimovic, but few of them gave their team less." Farinola, in La Repubblica, insisted that Ibra, rather than Inzaghi or his also injured team-mate Andrea Pirlo, was "the evening's true absentee".

On the same paper's website, his colleague Fabrizio Bocca takes a wider view. "Milan certainly seemed better equipped than last year, when they were knocked out by a stellar Rooney," he writes. "With Ibrahimovic, [Alexandre] Pato and Robinho they seemed to be ready to go further: we were all misled. This group of players is enough to go well in Italy, but it is still not the right mix for Europe. Tottenham are only fifth in the Premier League and this too gives us the measure of our [Italian] football."