Antonio Conte hopes Christian Eriksen will grow in confidence after scoring Inter’s dramatic stoppage-time winner against AC Milan tonight.
The Danish midfielder has struggled significantly during his 12-month spell with the Nerazzurri and very seldom performed to expectations, but he stepped up at San Siro and fired Inter through to the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia with a trademark free-kick in the 97th minute.
During his post-match press conference, Conte was asked about whether the goal can give Eriksen confidence and he was quick to praise the 28-year-old.
“It definitely gives him confidence,” he told reporters.
“It has to give energy to him and to us.
“I urged Christian to shoot from that position because he has great skills.
“He is a good boy, we all love him, he has integrated perfectly.
“He is a shy boy and we hope that this goal for him can take away the shyness because we need everyone.
“I’m happy for him and because he secured our qualification to the next round.
“I train all the players so that they are ready to play.
“I’m happy as there were important responses I got today.
“We won a derby and the importance of this match is that it will allow us to play in the semi-finals and we are happy.”
The former Italian national team coach was asked whether the tensions at the end of the first half had any sort of impact on the team’s performance in the second half of the match at San Siro.
“The boys were fired up and full of energy from the first minute.
“We went 1-0 down to AC Milan in an unfair way, we had many opportunities.
“If I have to complain about something, it is the fact that we must be more clinical when it comes to finishing our chances.
“Even though today the AC Milan goalkeeper was the best player on the pitch, at the same time we have to be better at scoring goals.”
Inter need to wait until Wednesday night to find out their opponents in the semi-finals of the competition but know that it will be one of Juventus or Serie B side SPAL.
