Tries from Ollie Smith and Ayoola Erinle gave Tigers a fifth away win of the season and turned the tables on the only side to win a league fixture at Welford Road this term.
In the first half we had some good attacks but lost the ball on two occasions, said Tigers head coach Loffreda.
We tried to be very positive at half-time but we talked about looking after the ball better and controlling possession. I thought we controlled it really well and we kept our focus on the game and on the game-plan very well and we tried at all times to be switched on. That takes a lot of mental control.
A strong defensive show was also important in repelling the Premiership leaders who had scored 32 Premiership tries before Saturday.
We talked a lot about having to defend very well here and I think we did that, Loffreda added. We tried to keep the tempo up but could not always do that, which is something we will have to work on. We also need better quality ball sometimes from the set-pieces. But of course this was against great opposition and we knew it would be like that.
The Tigers coach had to prepare without a number of players due to international call-ups and injury, but was impressed by the performance of his squad at Kingsholm, where Gloucester had won their previous 22 games.
During the week we talked about this being the best Leicester team for the day, he said. And they went on to the field and demonstrated that. We are very happy with that. The team responded and performed well.
It was a very important win but now we have to keep working hard. We always try to be better each game and that is what we are going to talk about next week, but everybody is happy with this win."
Tigers go to London Irish on Sunday before their next home fixture against Sale Sharks on Saturday, February 23 (kick-off 3pm). Tickets for that game are available now from Tigers ticket office on 08701 28 34 30, online at http://www.leicestertigers.com/ or from Welford Road.
