Italian national team manager Roberto Mancini has shared his delight at the progress made by Inter, despite the fact they suffered their first loss of the season against Juventus last night.
“It was an intense match, the match between those two is different to the rest. Juve and Inter have been strong for years. Juve is strong and in the Champions League they are improving, even away from home they always try to win as they did in Madrid,” he explained in a press conference ahead of Italy’s upcoming matches.
“Inter are improving too. It seems to me that they are already a great team. Inter played level with Barcelona but did not do so well in the first match against Slavia Prague. If you are not at 110%, you will struggle at international level.”
Mancini, who has managed Inter twice, then admitted to being unsure what Antonio Conte has meant with his recent comments about differences between football in England and in Italy.
“Every country has its own way of experiencing football. In Italy you live it with more passion, sometimes exaggerating. In England it doesn’t happen the same way.
“If you come back to Italy you know that there are certain attitudes, in the last ten years it is exaggerated but the way to live the game is like this. I don’t know what Conte was directly referring to.”
He concluded by discussing Stefano Sensi’s absence from his squad after he picked up an injury in the Derby D’Italia.
“We will probably not call anybody up to replace him. It is probably better that these injuries happen now as there is time for both him and Lorenzo Pellegrini to recover for the EURO’s next Summer.”
