Leonardo gave credit to Manchester United and confessed “the psychological aspect” was crucial in Milan's collapse.
“I think there are many things to analyse and it's not the right time. Apart from the fact the first half could've been a different result, but it was a clear victory for Manchester tonight and that is obvious,” he said of the 4-0 defeat, 7-2 on aggregate.
“We knew it took an incredible performance to overturn the first leg, but Manchester United got off to a very strong start and scored an early goal.
“This match was strongly affected by the psychological approach of the two teams. I don't think it can affect us in Serie A, as the team is very mature and we will discuss it between ourselves.
“This side has done some great things this season, including in the Champions League, and we are doing very well in Serie A with a four-point gap from the lead. I think we should consider this match for what it is and that goes for the first leg too.”
It was always going to be tough to overturn a 3-2 home defeat, but it became even trickier once Alexandre Pato, Alessandro Nesta and Luca Antonini were ruled out through injury.
“In all honesty, straight after the home game I had a strong belief, as the way we played was very good, aside from the result,” maintained Leonardo.
“Here the game started in a strange way and we were faced with a team on a great night with real talent who expressed themselves. The 4-0 has to be tied to the fact we needed three goals and so the belief drained out of us.
“We cannot deny that the Champions League was one of our targets. This is a heavy defeat against one of the main contenders for the title and are in great shape right now.”
With Pato absent, Leonardo opted for the same trident attack of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Marco Borriello and Ronaldinho that played in the 0-0 at Roma.
“I chose my line-up for Roma, but we also had in mind to experiment something that could be useful this evening. We needed to score early, get back from a deficit and make a real impact without Pato.
“I don't think it was a tactical issue tonight, as many things happened over the last couple of days that affected our preparation.”
He also explained why Clarence Seedorf replaced Daniele Bonera at half-time, mere seconds before Wayne Rooney scored his second.
“We were losing 1-0 and knew we had to score three. I introduced Seedorf, who is not fit to play 90 minutes yet, to push the team up. Bonera got an injury, so he had to be one of them and I opted to put Massimo Ambrosini in defence so we wouldn't lose any more substitutions.”
Leonardo was treated to a glass of wine after the final whistle by Sir Alex Ferguson.
“Obviously for the man who lost the wine will taste a little more bitter. Unfortunately it's football and one wins, one loses, but friendship, fair play and recognising the qualities of the other team is important.”
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