AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri believes his team's remarkable comeback from a 3-0 half-time deficit to win 4-3 at Lecce at the weekend has sent a warning to his team's title rivals.
The champions looked dead and buried at the break as their defence, missing lynchpin Thiago Silva, was all at sea as Guillermo Giacomazzi, Massimo Oddo and Carlos Grossmuller sent the hosts into dreamland.
But a stirring second-half fightback, led by hat-trick hero Kevin-Prince Boateng, culminated in a late winner from Mario Yepes.
"We've given a sign of great strength, which is important for our self-esteem," said Allegri.
"But we need to avoid these errors because it risks costing you if you have to expend great physical and mental energy given that we have to play every three days."
Allegri feels the comeback showed the character and the quality that sets his side apart from their rivals.
"In that moment we needed a big jolt. We went out for the second half against a Lecce side that had run a lot and exploited our deficiencies by scoring incredible goals.
"We then did exactly that with our quality. I was happy with our great reaction in showing that we're a team of champions with character and the desire to keep on winning."
Milan play Parma on Wednesday with Allegri looking for the team to keep climbing up the standings ahead of the weekend's important clash with Roma.
"Tomorrow Parma will make life difficult for us. They have a lot of quality, they run a lot, they push, they double up," said Allegri.
"It really will be difficult but it's important for us to win. From now until the international break, the table could take on a very different complexion and we need to try to win as many games as possible."
And Allegri revealed Milan will be keeping a special eye on Parma's diminutive forward Sebastian Giovinco.
"Sebastian makes the difference. We'll have a lot of difficulties tomorrow but without forgetting that we have another important match on Saturday against Roma," added Allegri.
"Parma didn't deserve to lose on Sunday (against Atalanta), they played well at Napoli, their only bad game was in Turin against Juventus. They're improving."