Legendary former Inter goalkeeper Walter Zenga was very impressed with the performance from forward Joaquin Correa off the bench in yesterday evening’s Champions League quarterfinal first leg win against Benfica.

Speaking to Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia, via FCInterNews, the former Nerazzurri captain suggested that the Argentine did exactly what he had been put on to do by adding a bit more fluency to the Nerazzurri’s attack at around the hour mark at the Estadio da Luz.

Correa was something of a surprise substitution during the second half of yesterday’s match.

Whilst it was certainly no shock to see Romelu Lukaku come on at the hour mark, it was not necessarily anticipated that Simone Inzaghi would change up the team’s entire attack, taking off Lautaro Martinez and putting on Correa.

However, the 28-year-old former Lazio and Sevilla man really rewarded the faith of his coach in the eyes of former Inter keeper Zenga.

“Joaquin Correa is extraordinarily talented, but every time he plays in Serie A he’s not really appreciated, or he just doesn’t really give the impression of doing much,” the former keeper said.

“Yesterday, however, his attitude was perfect, he did what had to do.”

“I said that he was a great signing,” Zenga looked back at Correa’s arrival from Lazio in the summer of 2021,”I was enthusiastic about it.”

He then noted that “Alessandro Bastoni played a great match and is the kind of defender who every coach would like to have – look at how many assists he makes, how he manages to open up matches.”

“And yesterday Nicolo Barella played a match like the real Barella,” he went on, “and he wasn’t cursing anyone out.”

“But I understand it,” he said of how Barella sometimes shows frustration with his teammates, “when I played at Inter I got angry with everyone because I put my soul into everything, without realizing that my attitude was harmful to the team.”