Legendary former Inter goalkeeper feels that Nerazzurri midfielder Nicolo Barella must find a calmness to his game after the player’s sending off against Real Madrid yesterday evening.
Speaking to InterTV after the match, the 61-year-old analyzed the match and suggested that the Nerazzurri had been outplayed by their opposition and also singled out Barella’s mentality as something that must be worked on.
Barella was sent into the advertising hoardings by a rough shoulder-to-shoulder tackle by Real defender Eder Militao during the second half of the match, and he was visibly angered by the challenge.
The 24-year-old reacted rashly by hitting out at Militao’s calf, and referee Felix Brych was left with little option but to send the midfielder off for the reaction.
Zenga feels that Barella must work on eradicating these flareups of his temper to ensure that he has the right attitude to be a top-level player, and that the Nerazzurri must find another level of maturity overall after their display.
“The duels won stat favours Real, as does that of shots goal even though they took three total shots less than Inter,” he stated.
“In the first half Real waited for Inter,” he went on, “they looked to quickly counterattack.”
“Everything revolves around the sending off of Barella,” Zenga added. “There were still chances for the Nerazzurri to create positive situations, but with ten men it became much more challenging.”
“Three minutes earlier Inzaghi had made the changes to change the structure of the team.” he explained.
The former keeper continued that “Barella reacted this way in the middle of a normal match. I don’t think it was the mistake on the goal that he didn’t score that was bothering him, it had been a while since then.”
“I think it was about something else,” he went on. “But in Europe more composure must be shown.”
“The game was not nervous, the atmosphere was pretty calm,” he went on. “Some things should not be done. Barella must understand that to become a top player he must find a mental balance that prevents him from hurting the team like this, even in the last minutes of a match.”
