AC Milan coach Vincenzo Montella said his side "played on par with Napoli" despite suffering a 2-1 defeat at home on Saturday.
Napoli held a two-goal advantage inside the opening 10 minutes following goals from Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon, and though Juraj Kucka got a goal back before half-time, Milan could not complete the comeback.
Montella acknowledged the strength of Napoli, who are only a point behind leaders Juventus, albeit having played two games more.
"I think there are few teams who played on par with Napoli this season," the Milan coach said. "At times we had control and I don't feel we deserved the defeat. I am disappointed at the result, but satisfied with how we played."
The manager also stood by his tactics in spite of the rough start.
"I don't think we did take the wrong initial approach this time, as we tried to control the game," Montella told Mediaset.
"This time our opponents were really good at scoring two goals and in the circumstances we have to tip our hats to them. Unfortunately those two goals shook us up, but we didn't lose our heads.
"It was a great game of football with a lot of quality and I enjoyed myself, so I'm sure the fans did too. I am happy with what my lads did, I'm satisfied with the performance and feel we played on a par with the side that let's not forget finished second last season and is about to face Real Madrid in the Champions League.
"We have just begun our journey and this should make us look forward with optimism. We go on with heads held high."
The defeat leaves Milan in fifth place, seven points behind third-placed Roma for the final Champions League qualification spot.
"I'd rather not talk about targets and aspirations right now," Montella said. "We have a game in hand and are therefore in line with our targets. We need to remain clear-headed even in defeat, realising we had a great performance even without important players.
Meannwhile, Callejon credited Diego Maradona for inspiring Napoli after the Argentina legend visited the club earlier this week.
"We deserved it. It's always difficult to play at San Siro but we showed we are a great team," Callejon said. "Yes, there was a little of the 'Maradona effect!'
"Milan are a great side, we were superb for the first 30 minutes but then they came back at us.
"We always want to improve, and coming here to win is proof of that. We are trying to stay there [near the top] and to keep playing for it. We're working well, with the right mentality. We want to keep going."