Matteo Darmian admits ‘it was a tough night, but now we feel so happy’ after heroic defending took Inter past FC Porto into the Champions League quarter-final.
Darmian was arguably Man of the Match with two massive goal-saving tackles, especially as he had earlier taken a yellow card for the team to prevent a dangerous counter-attack.
He eventually limped off with cramp, while Alessandro Bastoni sustained a muscular problem too in the 0-0 draw at the Estadio do Dragao.
“It was a tough night, but now we feel so happy,” Darmian told Sport Mediaset.
“We knew that we were up against a tough opponent, we gave it our all and brought home a great result for the whole group. We had to be concentrated on every ball.”
The first leg result proved decisive, as Romelu Lukaku grabbed a late 1-0 victory in that match and it was the final aggregate score too.
“This qualification repays us for our efforts to get here. We dropped points recently against the small teams, but this evening must give us a big confidence booster for the future.”
Darmian was asked if he has any preferences for the draw going into the quarter-finals.
“No, they are all difficult. I want to wish Napoli the best of luck for tomorrow, it’d be wonderful to have three Italians in the Champions League quarter-finals.”
Milan have already qualified by getting the better of Tottenham, again winning 1-0 at San Siro and drawing 0-0 away, while Napoli won the first leg 2-0 on Eintracht Frankfurt’s own turf.
Inter and Milan had not both reached the Champions League quarter-final since 2005-06.