Photo: Thomas Salme
Interview and video: Thomas Salme
Questions: Nima Tavallaey & Sia Fallahi SempreInter.com
SempreInter.com were the only media outlet who spoke to Bologna and Swedish international central defender, Mikael Antonsson after his Bologna were eliminated by an Andrea Ranocchia goal in the dying seconds of extra time in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal against Inter at the San Siro.
– We lost in the worst way possible, Antonsson says.
It was a disappointed but calm Mikael Antonsson who spoke to SempreInter.com’s reporter Thomas Salme, after having witnessed his Bologna crash out of the Coppa Italia quarterfinal after Italy international Andrea Ranocchia headed home a corner in the 120th minute to make it 3-2 to the Milanese giants. Below you can read the full interview:
Mikael, you lost here today at San Siro after a very tough encounter. How do you rate your own performance?
– It was ok, we manage to keep them relatively quiet to just being a goal up quite late into the game, we have chances to equalize but many times in football things are decided by small margins, still we manage to come back to 2-2 and we’re almost sitting there waiting for the penalty shootouts and then they score the winner with the last kick of the game. It’s sad, we’d liked to have gone through to the semifinals, it would have been a big thing for us.
Is it a particularly difficult defeat to take given that you staged a great comeback after being 2 goals down?
– Absolutely, it’s probably the worst manner possible to lose in, after having come back from being 2 goals behind and feeling that we’re really in it and as I said pretty much waiting for the penalty shoot-outs and then they score in the dying seconds, it’s a heavy defeat, no doubt.
Was there any particular Inter player that impressed you?
– Guarin is a very good player, Cassano another. It’s a team filled with world class players who play for different national teams, but out of the ones I played against today I’d say those two and Palacio who was very good when he came on, where the players who stood out in their team. Also you cannot forget to mention Zanetti, he sure is old but he sure knows how to play football.
What is Bologna’s goal for the rest of the season? Are you lookig upwards in the table or is it still a battle to beat the drop?
– We’re looking upwards, our last match we won by 4-0, we’re half way into the season and we feel that we can definately repeat last seasons feat of finishing as high-up in the table as we did in the end. That’s what we’re aiming for this season too, we’re not getting involved in the relegation battle so we’re looking upwards.
You’ve played very well so far this season as well as for the whole team, many voices in Swedish media want to see you feature more frequently in the starting line-up in the Swedish national team alongside WBA’s Jonas Olsson, what are your thoughts on that?
– I’ve been involved in national team duties for quite a long time now, the central defenders we have with Jonas Olsson and Andreas Granqvist have been brilliant so I’m always there if they need me. I definately won’t be demanding to start or anything like that, Jonas and Andreas are two fantastic people and two fantastic footbal-players who fully deserve their place in the squad. Having said that, obviously I would also like to play but as things stand they start the games and all I can do is to accept it and give my best during training sessions and prove that I want to play.
