Inter coach Antonio Conte spoke about the Nerazzurri’s 2-1 win over SPAL in an interview with Italian broadcaster InterTV after the final whistle.

“Very good performance. If I had to take something away from this game, I’d take away the moment when we conceded, it was too easy for the SPAL player to score, and that moment destabilized us a bit. For everything else, it was a great game.”

“We scored two goals and had several chances. But you have to take advantage of them, certain chances. At 2-1, if you get the ball, you have to score. We all know what football is like, in the last minute there’s a cross or a run that makes you lose two points. Today that would have been a shame, because we deserved to win.”

The 50-year-old Italian coach then touched on the poor first 15 minutes of the second half.

“In my opinion there was absolutely no physical decline, otherwise you don’t go back to the game and create new situations. I think that goal was a punch in the face, when no one expected it. The game was far too much in our control, the 2-1 surprised us a little, maybe it also took away some certainty and gave us some anxiety.”

“But then we went back to playing, we created chances, and we had to score a third goal. Now we’re first, but we’re still working with our heads down. I don’t want to see anyone presuming anything. We must continue to work, to sacrifice ourselves, in a serious way. Be enthusiastic, but always working hard.”

Finally, Conte spoke about what’s behind the growth of the strong partnership of Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez.

“I’ve played football, I know very well that under the spotlight there always players who end games, in this case, Lautaro and Romelu are our players who end games.”

“But let’s not forget everything the team does, because the team supports them from all points of view. I don’t like to rate the players individually, even though I think Brozovic had a super game today.”

“We’re working to make them better in every respect, they’re two guys who can become stronger, they can’t stop growing.”