Italian football journalist Sandro Sabatini has highlighted Inter’s difficulties in the Champions League under manager Antonio Conte following their Champions League group stage opener against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Despite the many absences they were dealing with Inter went into the match at San Siro as favourites over the German club but did not win as they were expected to.
Inter took the lead but the lead was short lived and Inter then found themselves behind in the 84th minute and looked set to lose but Romelu Lukaku rescued a draw late on.
“Only 2 Champions League victories in 11 games for Inter? It means that the statistics must be interpreted for what they are, there is not a great feeling with the Champions League but it must also be contextualized with other results,” Sabatini explained whilst present in the studios of Italian broadcaster Sport Mediaset, earlier on today.
“The surprise win of Shakhtar allows Inter to see this group even better than before. It is difficult to judge Inter’s match with Gladbach, Vidal played well apart from the two moments which then led to the two goals by the Germans.”
Sabatini proceeded to discuss Inter’s next opponents in the Champions League, Shakhtar Donetsk, who shocked everyone by beating Real Madrid 3-2 in their Champions League group stage opener away from home.
“Two months ago Inter beat Shakhtar 5-0, that evening for Inter can be considered positive. There cannot be such a difference between the two teams that will meet next week.”
Sabatini then spoke on Inter’s growth as a team compared to last year: “Inter are now much stronger than last year, clearly Young and Hakimi were not present.”
In conclusion Sabatini spoke on how things have changed for Romelu Lukaku and Christian Eriksen since their moves to Inter from Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.
“Lukaku plays better than he did at United because he feels the coach’s faith in him, it may be the case Eriksen does not feel the confidence of the coach in him.”
