Inter Coach Simone Inzaghi: “The Penalty Was The Only Way We Would Have Conceded Against Juventus”

Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi believes that his team defended well against Juventus in their 1-1 draw at the San Siro but that they failed to win because of a late penalty awarded against them.

Speaking to Italian broadcaster DAZN after the match, the 45-year-old gave the view that his team would not have conceded were it not for the controversial awarding of the penalty.

Inter took an early lead in the match through Edin Dzeko, with the match proving to be somewhat cagey during the opening 45 minutes.

In the second half the Bianconeri slowly became more proactive in search of an equalizer but the Nerazzurri stood firm and denied them any clear-cut goalscoring opportunities.

The chance that Juventus needed to equalize came in the form of a penalty awarded by VAR after a clumsy challenge by Denzel Dumfries which made contact with the leg of Juventus defender Alex Sandro on the edge of the box, but Inzaghi believes that his team were hard done by.

“It was the only way we could have conceded a goal,” he stated, “we didn’t concede anything to Juventus. I don’t like throwing away two points like that. The referee is there two meters away, he says it’s all right and then he is called back by the VAR.”

“We deserved more,” he said, “sorry for the guysand for the fans. We were crushed by Juventus? I have the opposite impression, we have never been in trouble. We certainly had to pay more attention. The referee signalled that there was nothing, my gesture of annoyance was not nice to see but there was regret.”

Of his team’s performance the Italian said, “In my opinion we did very well. Maybe Juventus did more in the second half, but we conceded practically nothing. We were good, we didn’t concede anything to a team with very great counterattacks. The whole team has done well. The only flaw tonight is the result, which penalizes us enormously.”

On Ivan Perisic, who was taken off during the second half, he stated that “At the end of the first half he was on the massage table with a little discomfort in his flexor. He was on a yellow and I thought it was better to replace him.”

Of his reaction to the penalty he stated that “You can be more careful, but it is normal that as a coach in the 89th minute you see the referee two meters away indicating that everything is fine and you can get angry for a moment. My anger? Everything has been reported to him: the sending offis there, I was wrong but so was the referee.”