Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi knows that midfielder Nicolo Barella regrets his costly red card in this evening’s 2-0 loss against Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Speaking in a press conference after the match, as reported by FCInterNews, the coach explained that the 24-year-old apologized for getting himself sent off, while he also rued the team’s poor finishing which ensured that they finish second in their group rather than top.
The Nerazzurri looked like they knew a draw didn’t do them any good from the first whistle at the Bernabeu, with Inzaghi’s men moving the ball around quickly in search of an opening goal.
The goal never came, however, while Real midfielder Toni Kroos found the back of the net with an excellent long range strike which meant that Inter needed two goals rather than one to take away the three points they needed.
Their task went from difficult to virtually impossible when Barella was sent off by referee Felix Brych for his overreaction to a rough shoulder-to-shoulder challenge by Real defender Eder Militao.
“I think Nicolo immediately understood his mistake,” Inzaghi stated, “he apologized. We were in the game.”
Of the overall team performance he stated that “We had a good sixty minutes, the only problem was not scoring.”
“He was nervous, he did something he didn’t have to do and it set the tone for a game that had been there to take until then,” he continued about Barella’s straight red.
“I had already made my changes,” he went on, “and to be left down a man here in Madrid, everything became complicated.”
The coach explained that “I said we had to do more than we did the first match, and until Barella was sent off we created many opportunities.”
“Thirteen shots on goal in the first half,” he reflected. “More cynicism was needed.”
“We went to the locker room 1-0 down and we regret this because we don’t feel it reflected the performance on the pitch.”
“Against teams like this we need to do more, we have learned,” he stated.” We played two excellent matches, we suffered two defeats and didn’t score even one goal.”
He continued by saying of Barella’s sending of that “He overreacted, it was the state of the match. He had just had a chance. He hit out at [Militao’s] calf, which is a sending off by the letter of the law.”
