Yahoo Sports Inzaghi: ‘Inter lick our wounds, should’ve controlled Milan better’
Simone Inzaghi confessed that Inter ‘should’ve controlled the situation a lot better’ when leading 2-0, but revealed he had more injuries in the 3-2 Supercoppa Italiana defeat to Milan.
The Nerazzurri felt they were in a perfect position to become the first side in history to win four editions of the Supercoppa Italiana in a row, as they were leading 2-0 with Lautaro Martinez and Mehdi Taremi goals.
However, the game changed when Rafael Leao came off the bench, inspiring all three comeback goals from Theo Hernandez, Christian Pulisic and the 93rd-minute Tammy Abraham tap-in.
“We must first of all congratulate Milan, because they never gave up despite being two goals down,” Inzaghi told Sport Mediaset.
“On the move for 2-1, we lost a cheap ball when we should’ve been in control, then had several chances to go 3-1 up and Maignan made great saves on Carlos Augusto and Dumfries.
“Unfortunately, we then conceded for 2-2 and lost it. This is a painful defeat, but there have been painful defeats over these years and the team always got back on its feet. We go home to lick our wounds, we’ve got a few new injuries to deal with, but we have six games in 18 days, so we need to get right back on track.”
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Inter conceded 10 of their total 19 goals this season after the 80th minute, so are they losing focus or fitness levels?
“I think that statistic is probably true of many teams who have this many fixtures, the intensity levels do drop. We are missing a lot of players in defence, the same ones keep having to carry the can and I can only thank them for that.
“We go home with immense disappointment, we gave all we had, but clearly at 2-0 up we should’ve controlled the situation a lot better.”
Inzaghi feels Inter regret after Supercoppa Italiana Final
Milan are a different beast under new coach Sergio Conceicao, so was Inzaghi expecting such a high press from the Diavolo?
“It wasn’t that high in the first half, but we made a few too many mistakes and then the changes made a difference, as Milan introduced strikers with a lot of pace. We still should’ve controlled it better, we were also unlucky with that Carlos Augusto header that came off the post,” insisted Inzaghi.
Not only did it strike the upright, but the header had partially crossed over the line before Mike Maignan managed to claw it away at the last moment.
Remarkably, this means Inter have lost only three competitive matches this season and two of them were against their bitter rivals, also falling 2-1 to Milan in Serie A back in September.
“It is a painful defeat, but you can learn valuable lessons from these situations. Obviously, it hurts to lose a Final when we were 2-0 up.”
Marcus Thuram, Benjamin Pavard and Francesco Acerbi were already out of action, while Hakan Calhanoglu limped off with an adductor issue after just 35 minutes this evening.
“These are very important players, but when you play every three days, we cannot rely on anyone. We need everybody and now hope the defenders can come back to help with rotation options,” insisted Inzaghi.
With the injury issues in defence in mind, was Alessandro Bastoni ready to continue after charging down the Tijjani Reijnders strike with his face or would he have come off if there were other alternatives?
“He said that it hit him in the eye and he needed five or six minutes to get back on track, but at the same moment De Vrij had a flexor issue. I waited a few minutes and Bastoni seemed in a better condition to finish the match than De Vrij,” revealed the Inter coach.
