Inter manager Antonio Conte has heaped praise onto veteran attacking midfielder Borja Valero following his performance in Inter’s 2-0 win over Napoli.
Inter took the lead via defender Danilo D’Ambrosio shortly after the game got underway at the San Siro and second half subsitute Lautaro Martinez scored a great curling effort with 15 minutes to spare to double Inter’s lead.
“Borja Valero I think is the best example of how working seriously every day can lead to you carving out space for yourself and proving that you are a footballer who is doing good for Inter,” he explained to the gathered media in his post-match press conference following interviews with various news outlets.
“I am very happy for him because it is right to say things as they are, at the beginning he was a low in the pecking order but during the year with his work he showed slowly, thanks also to the injuries, that he could carve out space for himself without ever disappointing and put me in difficulty with team selections.
“Ranocchia also played very little last year, while this year, when called into question, he always proves to be ready.”
Conte then went on to insist that when wanting to advance in competitions a balance is required when it comes to defence and attack, something, as he points out, Inter currently have.
“If you want to move forward in Europe and in competitions you must have a balance between the attack and defence. The numbers say that we have the best defense and the second best attack.
“We have many different players who have scored goals and this is an important thing. We have one last league match to play which will be beautiful.
“Atalanta have important players in every department. We will try to concentrate on the match against them and then we will think about Getafe.”
In conclusion the 50-year-old went on to discuss the need to recover and prepare to play in the Europa League at the start of next month when they will face Getafe in a one legged tie in the last 16, the winner of which will face Bayer Leverkusen or Rangers.
“We have worked a lot. This match was the last in a cycle of games every three days and seeing the team’s response must give us satisfaction.
“An important job was done, 14 games were played in next to no time. There has been a significant expenditure of energy but we have to be good at finishing the season.
“Tomorrow there will be a day off, then there will be one after Atalanta because they haven’t had it for a long time. We have to recharge and prepare for an important season finale also in Europe, the other European clubs have had more time to recover, but we we will try to do our best as always.”
