Antonio Conte insists the hard work starts now for Inter despite the positives from a “brilliant’ win against Juventus.
It had been five-and-a-half years since the Nerazzurri had won in the Derby d’Italia but they blew away their Scudetto rivals at San Siro on Sunday night.
Arturo Vidal hit his first Serie A goal for the club against his old team before Nicolo Barella latched on to a brilliant Alessandro Bastoni assist to make it two.
The result lifts Inter seven points clear of the defending champions and level on points at the top pending Milan’s trip to Crotone.
But the Coach is not going to take too long to savour the victory as he warned his players that the real work begins now.
“First of all compliments to the lads who who played the match brilliantly,” Conte told Inter TV moments after the final whistle.
“Not least because to win against Juventus, this Juventus that has dominated in Italy, you have to come close to perfection.
“The lads were truly very good and left a positive impression, albeit without presumptions because there is a long road ahead.
“At the same time I can say that in a year and a half we have come a long way and hard work pays off.
“The lads deserve this kind of satisfaction.
“We scored two goals and I think that, as on other occasions, we could have scored more.
“Sometimes we lack the killer instinct to rack up the score and be more relaxed.
“Today we did well in the defensive phase too, Samir made one save at the end to show that the team is on the right track.
“This has to be a game to carry with us because today we were a tough team in every respect, in possession we were difficult to stop.
“We had different solutions and in the defensive phase we conceded very little.
“We can’t afford flights of fancy, we need to think about improving and keep working in the right way.
“We’re on the right path.
“Personally the only verb I know is ‘to work’ and I’m trying to transfer that to the players.
“It’s a victory to put in a drawer because last year there were only two defeat to Juventus in that drawer.
“So we’ll put it there and know we can call on it if we need to.”