Ivan Juric feels that his Torino side played well in the first half of their Serie A clash with Inter Milan, before a red card changed the game.
The Granata coach spoke to Italian broadcaster DAZN, via FCInterNews, after the Nerazzurri’s 2-0 victory.
Torino looked like a team who wanted to do what they could to spoil Inter’s Scudetto party from the opening whistle of this afternoon’s match.
The Piedmontese side played with the aggression and discipline that has become their hallmark with Juric as their coach.
This meant that Inter struggled to really find fluidity for much of the first half.
The Nerazzurri never had an easy passing option to settle into their rhythm. Torino made sure to always disrupt Inter’s passing game.
In the second half, however, Juric’s team quickly faced a major obstacle in this regard.
Juric: Torino “Serious” In First Half Vs Inter – Red Card Made Things Difficult
Midfielder Adrien Tameze was sent off for dragging back Inter midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the opening stages of the second half.
The Armenian was judged to be through on goal when the Granata midfielder fouled him.
Therefore, it became orders of magnitude more difficult for Torino to cover the pitch and really stifle Inter as they had done in the first half.
As the spaces just started to appear in midfield for Inter, the Nerazzurri started to play more confidently in possession.
The result was more chances. And soon, Hakan Calhanoglu had scored twice in the space of a few minutes to give the Serie A champions the lead, and eventually the win.
“We played a serious first half,” said Torino coach Juric.
“We allowed very little, and created two good chances to score.”
The Granata coach noted that “We played a 4-2-3-1 in the first half. It was a good half on a tactical level.”
“We had plenty of solutions, I’m happy with it even if there were certain things that needed to be improved upon.”
“It’s too bad about the red card,” added Juric. “Because before that, it looked like a very even match to me.”
