Inter coach Antonio Conte spoke to gathered reporters at a press conference earlier today, discussing the Nerazzurri’s important 3-0 win over Sassuolo. His words were noted by Italian media outlet FcInterNews.
“If we consider the result is the best so far, we scored three goals and conceded zero. But we have also done even better performance wise than this one.
“The final result pushed the judgement. Today we had a good game but we did better in terms of quality.”
The 51-year-old Italian coach revealed what he said to the squad after their painful loss to Spanish giants Real Madrid in the Champions League earlier this week.
“I thanked them for their commitment. After five minutes against Real we conceded a penalty, after thirty minutes we were down by one man. We were playing against Real, if we are not able to understand these things.
“I consider the performance that the guys do, against Real they gave everything they had. When I have to intervene, I do so, but against Real, there was nothing to reproach them for. I repeat, I thanked them.”
He touched on if today’s important win over the Neroverdi gives him confidence ahead of next week’s vital Champions League clash against German side Borussia Monchengladbach.
“In the Champions League there are two more matches to play. We’ll give the maximum we can, hopefully we’ll be a bit lucky with referees and VAR, since we weren’t very lucky this year in the games.
“We hope to recover some players because we are always playing with the same ones. We will fight to try to have some more hope, then there is the pitch that will say if we have deserved it or not.”
Conte spoke about his relationship with club president Steven Zhang, who reiterated his trust in the Italian coach at a shareholders meeting yesterday.
“Surely my relationship with the team and president is very good. I have made myself totally available to start a journey with this club and try to get them back where they belong and where they were ten years ago.
“I am one of the solutions, together with the other two-three to bring Inter back up, but I can’t be the only one. I am not alone and we need everyone.
“Great pleasure for the praise of the President and management, there is mutual praise, but I repeat I am not the only solution.”
The 51-year-old Italian coach did not comment on the banner displayed by the Inter ultras before the game, threatening them with baseball bats if they did not perform well.
“Which banner?”
Finally, Conte expanded further on his answer.
“I sincerely wasn’t aware of it. What I can say is that there is a will and determination on the part of all of us to try to always give our best and make our fans proud.
“Sometimes we succeed more, sometimes less, but one thing must be clear, we always put in 110% and we know that.
“Playing for Inter is not easy, I realize that there is a lot of negativity around the team, Inter makes news, it sells. We must be good at isolating ourselves from certain pressures and we must all be good at it.
“There must be different solutions to bring Inter back where it deserves, not just one solution that can be the coach, there is everything.
“We have to be good. I’m sorry when players are attacked, but we have to be strong and create a strong bond between us hoping that when the sea is stormy everyone will be on that boat.”
Inter’s next game is against Borussia Monchengladbach next week.
