Inter wing-back Ashley Young has put Inter’s goalless draw away to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League group stage down to bad luck and a lack of cynicism.
“It wasn’t easy this evening. We went up against a team that defended stubbornly throughout the match, we tried from the beginning to build up from the back and then attack them,” he explained in an interview with Inter’s official club broadcaster Inter TV following the match in the Ukrainian capital city.
“We created many opportunities, it was a question of bad luck and lack of cynicism at certain moments. It was difficult this evening, we still managed to score a point though.”
He was then asked whether or not he expected to come up against Shakhtar Donetsk in the way that they did line-up or whether he thought the game would be more open.
“We expected them to be like this actually. It was a difficult game, that’s true and we are disappointed not to be able to get the win, but it is still a valuable point. This was not an easy place to collect points.”
The experienced Englishman was then asked about this weekend’s Serie A match at home to Parma and insisted that he and his teammates will be ready despite the little time available to them to prepare.
“Now we have to recover our strength as soon as possible, go ahead and think about the next match immediately. We have a few days to do it, but we will be ready.”
In conclusion he was asked about how it felt to return to action after missing Inter’s past few matches due to having COVID-19.
“It was undoubtedly a strange and difficult time for me. I stayed home and tried to train on my own to be ready.
“I was unable to recover at 100% and at the end of the match I didn’t feel like I could finish the entire 90 minutes. Now I will finish my recovery and I will be ready for this weekend.”
This season the former Manchester United player has made four appearances across all competitions to date, in which he has provided one assist.
