Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi is glad that his team were able to qualify for the Champions League knockouts even though they were not able to do so top of their group.
Speaking to InterTV after yesterday evening’s 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, the 45-year-old expressed his disappointment at the result but put it in perspective given that the Nerazzurri are still in the round of sixteen.
Qualifying for the round of sixteen of Europe’s top competition is something that Inter have not been able to do so in a decade.
The club failed to do so at the last three times of asking under Luciano Spaletti and Antonio Conte, and Inzaghi will have known that getting the job done this campaign was an important part of his remit as Inter coach.
The team did so with a game to spare, meaning that their match against Real was for top spot in the group rather than a must-win to stay alive in the competition.
Inzaghi reflected on yesterday’s loss, stating that “We had a good match until the sending off, with the blot being the sending off.”
“There was a great chance for Barella before he was sent off that could have gotten us to 1-1, which would have changed everything,” he added.
The coach gave the view that “As far as we’re concerned being 1-0 down after the first half was not a fair reflection of what happened on the pitch.”
Asked about whether he was proud of his team Inzaghi stated, “A lot, because it is something that we wanted and that we managed to get with a match to spare.”
“We wanted to achieve something even more tonight,” he reflected, “we played a good game but against Real, who are a good team, it is normal that if you give them a man advantage with half an hour to go everything becomes more difficult.”
“We take away the fact that we played with personality in a stadium like this,” he added, “where we played a good match where the only problem being that we didn’t score from all the chances we created.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s Serie A clash with Cagliari, Inzaghi stated that “We expect an important and tough match against a team that in the last few weeks has gotten some good results, but we will try to recover our energy and be at our best.”
