Inter coach Simone Inzaghi feels that his team paid dearly for their inability to kill the match off in their draw against Salernitana this afternoon.
Speaking to DAZN after the final whistle, via FCInterNews, the coach rued his team’s inefficiency and how it cost them two points when Antonio Candreva improbably found the back of the net from a cross late on in the match.
Struggles with finishing had been a big part of the talk before today’s match, as Inter had gone 487 minutes without scoring from open play prior to kickoff at the Stadio Arechi.
Contrary to this, the Nerazzurri wasted no time in getting off the mark as Robin Gosens scored in the sixth minute of the match.
However, after that Inter found themselves unable to find the second goal, as a combination of an outstanding display by Granata goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, the frame of the goal, and plain bad finishing meant that the Nerazzurri could not double their advantage.
This wouldn’t have been a problem had Inzaghi’s team managed to keep a clean sheet.
However, this was not to be as a cross from former Nerazzurri, Lazio, and Sampdoria man Candreva which initially looked a touch overhit sailed over not just all the Granata players in the box, but also Inter keeper Andre Onana, finding the back of the net.
Reacting to the match, Inzaghi said that “It’s difficult to talk about football at the moment.”
“But we all saw that the team played a good match, our one crucial fault was failing to score the second goal.”
“We pay dearly for not killing matches off,” the 47-year-old said, “that’s why we’ve been struggling.”
“We put an incredible amount into it, though, sometimes as a coach it’s hard to explain how a match can end up in a draw considering all the chances we created,” Inzaghi rued.
“Everyone is disappointed, the coaching staff, all the fans who cheered us on right to the end, we have to work harder but we left everything out on the pitch, I’ve got nothing to say in terms of the commitment.”
“It’s a 1-1 draw that’s very harsh on us and we’re disappointed, but we have to try and take it as a motivation over the next couple days,” the coach added.
“I have to watch it back, but I’d say we interpreted the match well,” Inzaghi defended his team.
“There’s de Vrij’s header, which gets saved by Ochoa, then the post, then the crossbar.”
“The problem is that we didn’t score the second goal,” the coach reiterated, “right now it’s a moment where all the results are just going against us, it’s always disappointing.”
“But given that we have so many matches to play so close together, we have to put this match behind us immediately,” the coach added.
“Not to mention, in the last year and a half I don’t think I’ve ever seen a goal like the one that we conceded.”
Asked if he thinks that his team can still recover and have a positive month of April, Inzaghi replied “Absolutely, yes, because I see how the guys are training and everything that they put into the matches, even if right now they’re not being rewarded by the results.”
“We need to be resilient and we need to work harder, I have nothing to say to the guys about their commitment.”
Of Romelu Lukaku’s recent inability to score from open play, Inzaghi said that “Sometimes strikers go through periods like this.”
“Right now, all of our attacking periods are going through that.”
“Now we just have to get fate and the results back on our side,” the coach added.
Asked if the choice to start Lukaku and Joaquin Correa was an indication that he intends to start Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko against Benfica in the Champions League, Inzaghi replied that “Correa and Lukaku were the two players who seemed best-suited to play from the start.”
“Now that we’re playing every 48-72 hours, I have to get the most out of as many players as possible, there were some players out there who hadn’t played in a while and I got a good response out of everyone,” the coach added.
