Inter defender Stefan de Vrij believes that the Nerazzurri came up against a very tough opponent in the form of this evening’s Champions League group stage clash with Shakhtar Donetsk.
Speaking to Inter TV, the Dutchman gave his immediate reaction to a match in which his team had to share the points with Roberto De Zerbi’s men after a match in which neither side were ever to really take control.
The Nerazzurri did not take the same approach that they have in recent Serie A matches, where they have piled on goalscoring chances and found the back of the net more than once in each of their fixtures.
Instead, Simone Inzaghi’s team looked to have been exercising more caution against an opponent that they knew could have caused them trouble.
In the end, neither team were able to take a telling chance that would have swung the game, but both found their first point of this season’s Champions League group stage campaign.
“It was a tough game thanks to them,” de Vrij said, “they played well with possession, they played out of our pressure. They were good, we could have done better. We are sorry for the result, because we wanted to win. But we could also lose, in the end we didn’t lose.”
De Vrij then emphasized the importance of “Analyzing the match well and concentrating on our next matches.”
And on his near-miss where he had a header saved by Shakhtar keeper Andriy Pyatov, de Vrij said that “It would have been nice, but winning was the thing we wanted. Too bad we didn’t.”
