Tottenham made hard work of what should have been a comfortable Europa League night against Inter Milan, but the game on the pitch was again marred by racist chants by the home side's fans against Spurs' black players.
The crowd at the San Siro were heard making monkey chants at the Spurs players, while a fan in the home side's section could be seen holding up an inflatable banana. This is not the first time that Spurs have endured such abuse in Italy with their group stage game against Lazio also overshadowed by racist abuse.
"It's a very sensitive situation," Villas-Boas said of the chanting. "UEFA set out to act on that situation.
"It was very, very easy to hear the chanting so I am sure that UEFA will act on it.
"It's difficult for Inter Milan because it is something that in some way has happened before.
"It doesn't mar the game but it is something that should have been avoided."
Emmanuel Adebayor, one of the players who had to endure the ugly chants, scored the all-important goal in extra time after Inter Milan levelled the aggregate scores in normal time with a 3-0 result of their own following Spurs' 3-0 first leg victory.
Ricky Alvarez also netted in the extra period, but Inter could not find the fifth goal they needed to progress, as Spurs entered the quarterfinals on the away goals rule, with the tie ending 4-4 on aggregate.
"We went through all the emotions," Villas-Boas added. "The fans were there for us when it was not looking good and the players were there to reach this wonderful objective that we continue to pursue.
"These are the positives of a night that didn't go our way. I don't think Inter are as bad as they showed at White Hart Lane and we are not as bad as we showed tonight.
"One thing we could see was that the players really wanted to achieve the objective because they kept on fighting even if the game wasn't going their way.
"We always looked on the back foot and we couldn't find our football, that's why we struggled so much. In the end, we managed to score away from home which was our objective but only in extra time and after a lot of suffering.
"Tomorrow (Friday), when we see the draw, we will understand what we have achieved.
"Maybe it wasn't in the fashion we wanted but we will understand that we were in a difficult group in the qualifying phase, we had two very difficult knockout ties with away games as the second leg and we managed to go through against Lyon and Inter Milan which is a tremendous achievement for everybody."
