Arturo Vidal has forced his critics to eat their words after his performance for Inter in the Derby d’Italia, according to the Nerazzurri’s former defender Daniele Adani.

Vidal has come in for heavy criticism during his first six months in Milan after joining for Barcelona, but he starred for Antonio Conte’s side on Sunday, scoring the opening goal in a 2-0 win over Juventus.

It follows the penalty Vidal scored against Fiorentina in last week’s Coppa Italia last 16 tie, taking his goal tally for the season to two.

“There should be a long line of people waiting to apologise to Vidal,” Adani said while speaking to ex-Inter striker Christian Vieri on Vieri’s Twitch channel, Bobo TV.

“The Chilean opened the scoring and showed real strength and a spirit.

“In my opinion he still needs to improve and he will do so, but he was superior on Sunday to the likes of Rodrigo Bentancur, Adrien Rabiot and Aaron Ramsey.

“Who made Vidal become like this by putting him on the field despite the criticism? The coach.”

Adani also addressed the idea that Inter have the best squad in all of Serie A.

“They say that maybe Inter have the strongest squad in the league, I say that the strongest squad is still Juventus, but for two teams that are the same there was too much difference in last weekend’s game.

“For me it was all positive on one side and all negative on the other.

“Andrea Pirlo himself said Juve were only thinking about defending.”

Adani then went on to address the tactical battle on Sunday between Conte and Pirlo, which turned out to be more one-sided than most had foreseen.

“We must be clear: was anyone really expecting that in that match someone like Conte, who has been coaching all his life and has won things, would be out-thought by someone who has just started coaching?

“These sorts of games are for profound, special men who know how to deal with the pressures and how to intervene during the course of the game.

“Juventus lost overall and to put the game plan into practice, you need heart, courage, spirit and attention and Juventus failed in all of this.

“It is unthinkable to concede a goal like Barella’s goal.

“Pirlo is a coach in the making, he has only just started and in Inter-Juve we must allow him to lose the game against Conte.”

Inter have opened up a seven-point gap over the Bianconeri in Serie A, although they remain three points behind leaders AC Milan.