Following Inter’s first victory of this year’s Champions League group stage over Borussia Dortmund, Inter manager Antonio Conte held his customary post-match press conference to reflect on the 2-0 win.
“Is this the most important victory of the season? It can change our prospects for the season and keeps our hopes of being able to progress in the Champions League from a very difficult group alive,” he started.
“I’m especially happy for my players because victory was the only way to honour the effort made to play on these kind of nights with a full stadium. We are on the right path.
“I’m happy for our fans who supported the team. Now we must recover quickly because we are playing against Parma in a few days which will be more difficult than tonight’s match. Let’s see if we can recover some of those injured too.
“There is a desire to give a team direction at all times but we showed maturity something that did not happen against Sassuolo. If you want to fight for something important, you have to give a feeling of compactness, of a team that works well in both phases.”
He went to speak on the team’s ambitions.
“I spoke about it as being an important match but some asked me if it were a final. We did not start the season with ambitions to win the title or Champions League but rather to lay the foundations for something to be built over time.
“This year we started from scratch selling Icardi, Perisic and Nainggolan. We want to do something important, we know it won’t be easy and we shouldn’t get emotional about things. We are working for the present and the future, and we are working hard.”
He concluded by touching upon why Inter pressed Dortmund as they did.
“We chose a certain zone of the pitch to pressure them and studied their four man defence. They were afraid when we were building-up. Brandt, Sancho and Hazard are devastating, you can’t give them ample space but we were good at reading the match well.”
