Eusebio Di Francesco blamed ‘naïve mistakes’ for Hellas Verona’s defeat to Inter, but also rued the strength in depth the Nerazzurri could call on from the bench, including brace hero Joaquin Correa.
The final result was 3-1 at the Stadio Bentegodi, although Ivan Ilic had put the hosts in front when pouncing on a poor Samir Handanovic pass.
“There was a lot of Hellas in the first half where we didn’t make the most of our chances, especially with Antonin Barak,” Di Francesco told Sky Sport Italia.
“Correa arrived yesterday and immediately was decisive with two goals, whereas we were naïve to concede a goal on a throw-in. It’s a pity that it was straight after the restart, as that changed the game and until that point Inter had struggled to really put moves together.
“Darmian also put in a cross for the second goal practically from the by-line and that was not exactly irresistible. We need to do better on these situations.
“Teams like Inter will punish you when you make mistakes like that that are avoidable.”
Yet it was Verona who pounced on an Inter error for the opening goal, Ilic pressing Marcelo Brozovic on the misplaced Handanovic pass, having initially used Barak as a False 9.
“I wanted to play without reference points in attack and use Cancellieri’s movements off the ball, but we didn’t make the most of those situations.
“We also hoped to work on this hybrid position that Stefan de Vrij has, and that kind of aggressive press is what allowed us to take the lead. Unfortunately, I think substitutions made the difference tonight.”
The use of five substitutions does favour the bigger clubs who have more options they can look to.
“I was forced into a substitution with Ceccherini’s ankle problem and that made us change the strategy, while some were exhausted and had to come off in the second half, which is understandable at this stage of the season.
“We had Giovanni Simeone on the bench, but he didn’t even have one training session with us, so it wasn’t right to use him tonight. I do believe we deserved better this evening.”