Inter coach Simone Inzaghi had refuted suggestions that Lautaro Martinez has yielded the Serie A title after their 3-0 win over Sampdoria in the league yesterday evening.
The Nerazzurri were comfortable winners over relegation-threatened Sampdoria, with goals from Stefan De Vrij, Nicolo Barella, and Joaquin Correa handing them all three points at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
In an interview with Italian television broadcaster DAZN after the final whistle, and as reported by FCInterNews.it, Inzaghi insisted that comments made by striker Martinez were taken out of context, and that the Argentine had merely suggested that Inter were focusing on each game individually and not abandoning the Scudetto race.
It’s a trick question, I heard Lautaro and he said that we don’t look at the table but that we think about winning, he didn’t talk about the title,” Inzaghi claimed.
“As for the defensive phase, it’s nice not to concede goals, we have to continue like this and we have to close the gap at the top, even if now we have a more difficult schedule than the others.
“We have to move forward without looking backwards though.”
Inzaghi is set to have a full-strength squad available to him after Stefan De Vrij, Roberto Gagliardini and Romelu Lukaku returned from injury, and midfielder Marcelo Brozovic closes in on full fitness.
“The boys are having fun, we are when we watch them play anyway.
“Now Romelu and Tucu (Correa) are back , as is Gagliardini, while we are also waiting for Brozovic who is the only one missing. Let’s see if we can bring him to Turin (against Juventus) on Sunday.”
After a period of mixed form culminating in a 2-1 defeat to Roma, Inter have recovered and have now won four Serie A games in a row, in addition to two Champions League wins and a draw against Barcelona.
“We did the right things in the international break, when we came back after the undeserved defeat against Roma I had already seen the team in a clear recovery,” Inzaghi revealed.
“We knew we had Barcelona and a difficult schedule, but there was a lot of hope.
“The boys were not happy, we knew what we had done last year and we knew that we could do more again, that everything came from hard work and confidence.
“Nobody stops, so we must continue even if we know we have done something extraordinary in the Champions League. We will think about it from February, for now we focus on the league.”
Inter were aided in their victory by a magnificent goal from Barella, and the strike drew praise in DAZN’s studio from Inzaghi’s former Lazio midfielder Marco Parolo, and he was positive about the former Italy international’s future after retiring.
“I heard Parolo’s examination of Barella’s goal, he was an exceptional player. To see him from the outside you said ‘he’s a good player’, then by training him you also understood why the other coaches always picked him. He could become a great coach.”
The match against Sampdoria also brought Inzaghi face to face with another name from his past, in ex-Lazio teammate Dejan Stankovic, now coaching the Blucerchiati.
Asked if he could remember how far their stories had crossed, Inzaghi pointed to his first goal in Serie A for Piacenza, to cancel out Stankovic’s in a 1-1 draw against Lazio in 1998.
“Yes, my first goal against Lazio is what we share,” Inzaghi concluded.
