A satisfied, but slightly frustrated, Walter Mazzarri is interviewed by Sky after the game against Juventus. Everything happened in a few minutes, with Icardi and Vidal scoring for each side respectively in the 1-1 draw at the Giuseppe Meazza.
The first topic brought up is Arturo Vidal: “Did he touch the ball with his hand? From my position at the side of the pitch it definitely looked like a hand ball. You could also discuss whether Lichtsteiner deserved a second yellow card, which would have given us an advantage. However, we prefer not to think of these things, I do not want to comment on the referees. Let’s talk about the game. We stood up well against a well-playing Juventus, especially in the first half. After half time we even aimed to win the game, and several things happened in a short period of time”.
A satisfying draw? “Today’s Inter was exactly what I wanted to see. We have played superbly against Genoa and Catania, but I wanted to make sure that we are ready mentally, even for matches like this one. You could see that we were a bit static in the beginning of the match. However, the players reacted positively and that gives me a reason to be proud at this point of the season. The Scudetto? I spoke to Moratti, two bad games are enough for people to start talking about Inter as a team in need of reinforcements. I think it still is too early to say, some questions are better left un-answered. We are still improving and we started from scratch Let’s see how we can perform: right now we are playing above everyone’s expectations”.
Gambling on Icardi as a substitute for Taider paid off. Did you consider making another switch right after the 1-0 goal? “Kuzmanovic had already started warming up, but I never had time to make the substitution. After the goal there was a feeling that we had already won. I saw the team playing very well and I decided to let Icardi on the pitch. In the end, we even risked losing the game, even though we played brilliantly until the first goal. We needed to keep playing with the same energy even after Juventus’s equalizer.
The tempo of the game changed in the second half. “That’s correct. We were more versatile, less static. Jonathan, Taider and Guarin played very well, to mention a few. This is a normal phase of our development as a team. Taider is playing at the Giuseppe Meazza after playing for Bologna last season. We’re improving”.
