Antonio Candreva insisted he was not surprised by how well Inter played in their opening-day win against Lecce on Monday.
Marcelo Brozovic, Stefano Sensi and Romelu Lukaku all found the net for Antonio Conte’s side before Candreva capped a 4-0 win with a stunning long-range effort.
The Italian gave an enormous thanks to Inter’s supporters at San Siro and said he was pleased to end his scoring drought at home.
“We’ve been preparing for this match since the first day of preseason and we weren’t waiting for anything else,” Candreva said in the mixed zone.
“Inter were a strong and determined side tonight. We still need to improve but we’re ready to do so.
“San Siro has always been friendly with us. The fans have never left us on our own and have always been close to us.
“We can enjoy this victory until midnight and then from tomorrow we’ll be thinking about the match against Cagliari.”
Candreva appeared to rebuild his bridges with Inter’s supporters on Monday, following a difficult couple of seasons in which he received a lot of criticism.
“I lost a year last season and this year I want to redeem myself with the whole team,” he said.
“Last year is put to one side now, we’ve started a new season with an incredible coach and the campaign will be long.
“There are lots of matches to play, so we’ll enjoy our beautiful performance and then we return to work tomorrow.
“We want to follow Conte’s instructions because he’s a great coach, but it’s only week one and the road ahead of us is long.”
On the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Mauro Icardi’s future, Candreva added: “We know as much as you do.
“These are things which concern Mauro and the club. We need to focus on working because Sunday’s match is extremely important.”
