Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi admits that he and his players will take the result after a tight draw away to Juventus in Serie A.
Inzaghi spoke to Italian broadcaster DAZN, via FCInterNews, after the 1-1 draw.
Inter dropped points for the third time this season in Serie A at the Allianz Stadium.
But where matches against Sassuolo and Bologna had the feeling of real slip-ups, this evening’s match gave more of a sense that the team had avoided defeat rather than failing to win.
It was the home side who initially went ahead. Dusan Vlahovic opened the scoring for Juventus shortly before the half-hour mark.
Then Inter found the equalizer shortly afterwards. Nerazzurri captain Lautaro Martinez responded, his fifteenth goal of the season across all competitions.
But after that, the chances were few and far between.
Inter had the majority of possession but didn’t do a great deal with it. And Juventus appeared happy to keep their Derby d’Italia rivals at arm’s length.
Inter Coach Simone Inzaghi: Take A Point Away To Juventus
For his part, Nerazzurri coach Inzaghi is not too displeased with the result.
The coach points out that his team are in the middle of a tough period, and with some adversity in the form of a number of injuries in defense.
“For how it came, we’ll take it,” Inzaghi said of the result.
“We know that scoring against Juve is difficult because they defend very well,” the coach noted.
“But the team stayed focused and scored a great goal.”
Inzaghi said that “We should have done better on their goal. We lost the ball in midfield and then Vlahovic scored with his first shot.”
“In the second half we didn’t create much,” the Nerazzurri coach admitted,
“But we know that Juve are an excellent team.”
“We’ll take the draw,” he added. “Even if I wouldn’t have signed for it before the match, because we wanted to win.”
Inzaghi observed that “We had to manage the last twenty minutes of the match.”
“It’s tricky for us,” he noted. “We have two difficult matches and we’re missing a number of players.”
“Cuadrado wasn’t back in training until Thursday,” the Inter coach observed. “And Dumfries wasn’t at his best when he came back from international duty.”
“It’s an injury crisis for us,” the Inter coach said.
“It’s not easy playing every 48-72 hours.”
Hoping To Have Alexis Sanchez Back Fit For Benfica Clash
Inzaghi also spoke about his intention to rotate the team at least somewhat in this Wednesday’s Champions League group stage match away to Benfica.
Inter have already qualified for the knockout rounds of the competition.
However, there is still top spot in the group for the team to fight for.
“I’ve always rotated,” Inzaghi made clear. “And I will keep doing so.”
“I’ll have to evaluate,” he added.
“I hope that we can have Alexis Sanchez back for our trip to Lisbon.”
“With the fixture list that we have, it makes us work even harder,” the Inter coach noted.
Difficult To Get In Between The Lines Of Compact Juventus Defense
Inzaghi also gave his thoughts on the tactical trend of this evening’s match.
Inter had the majority of possession. But there was not a lot of time and space in dangerous areas for Nerazzurri players against a stubborn Bianconeri defense.
“The kind of match that we were expecting over the past two days was the one we saw,” the Inter coach said.
“We knew that we could find Mkhitaryan and Barella between the lines,” he said.
“But they stayed very deep.”
Inzaghi noted that “At a certain point I told Barella not to keep coming too deep to get on the ball. We already had enough players there to build up.”
“With such narrow spaces it can be tough to find passing lanes,” the coach said.
As far as the top teams in the Serie A title race, Inzaghi said that “I didn’t see the matches yesterday. But Milan and Napoli are built to be at the top just like us.”
The Inter coach said that “There are four teams fighting at the top. And then teams ready to try and find a way into it.”
