Inter defender Milain Skriniar isn’t taking too much credit for his spectacular goal-line clearance in the Nerazzurri’s 2-0 win over Roma in the Coppa Italia yesterday evening.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster SportMediaset, the 26-year-old emphasized the he just made the movement to head the ball away on instinct, and also praised teammate Alexis Sanchez for his spectacular second-half goal.
Skriniar put in a solid display at the back to help his team to a clean sheet and a win to progress to the semi-finals, but an incredible headed clearance from a Nicolo Zaniolo shot stood our among his interventions.
Zaniolo was ruled to have been narrowly offside when he shot anyway, and so the goal wouldn’t have stood had it went in, but Skriniar wasn’t to know that.
He positioned himself expertly and showed great determination to guide the Roma midfielder’s goal-bound effort out for a corner.
“I saw that the goal was unguarded and I chased down the ball, I had a bit of luck getting to it, even if it was offside,” he said. “I didn’t know it at the time, and I threw myself at it.”
He also praised Sanchez’s effort, stating that “Sanchez scored a real beauty, it was important for us to manage the game and to kill it off when the opportunity arose.”
On the period after the derby loss to AC Milan over the weekend, he said that “It wasn’t an easy three days, but then we showed our quality against Roma.”
“The Coppa Italia is an objective for us,” he added, “now further important matches are awaiting us.”