Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi feels that defender Francesco Acerbi scored his winning goal against Parma with the technique of a natural Number Nine.
Speaking to InterTV after the match, via FCInterNews, the coach reacted to the team’s 2-1 win over the Emilians to reach the Coppa Italia round of sixteen yesterday, and praised Acerbi for his finish to get the result.
Just as Andrea Ranocchia had been an unlikely match-winning hero in the Coppa Italia round of sixteen last season, this time it was Acerbi who produced a moment of magic to make sure that the Nerazzurri will be in the quarterfinals of the competition.
The 34-year-old watched Parma keeper Gianluigi Buffon’s punch from a Federico Dimarco cross all the way down, and decided to try his luck with an audacious header from outside the box.
It was hardly an obvious position to score a headed goal from, but Acerbi’s looping header had exactly the trajectory to fly over the head of Buffon before descending into Parma’s net.
“Acerbi scored a great goal,” the defender’s coach said afterwards, “almost like that of a centre-forward, but all the other players who came on also did well.”
“Now there are a number of matches in close proximity, and we’ll need to have everyone fit and available.”
“Tonight we struggled in possession during the first half,” Inzaghi continued, “then we looked better when we came back on the pitch, and could have even equalized earlier.”
“After that, we did well not to concede, I think Onana only had one save to make after Juric’s goal,” the coach pointed out.
“We did well to keep our shape and not allow them much space.”
