Simone Inzaghi leaves the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu with ‘many regrets’ after Inter’s 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid and reveals Nicolò Barella has already apologised for his reaction foul.
The Nerazzurri needed a victory to leapfrog Real Madrid and take the top spot in this group, but both had already qualified for the Champions League Round of 16 anyway.
They were two stunning curlers from Toni Kroos and Marco Asensio that left Samir Handanovic no chance, while their own finishing left something to be desired.
This means Inter will not be seeded in the draw for the knockouts.
Champions League | Real Madrid 2-0 Inter: Barella sees red at the Bernabeu
“There are many regrets, especially as we did well in the first half, showed character, creating several chances and the statistics were in our favour, but we went into the break a goal down,” Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia.
“That did not reflect what we saw on the pitch, clearly we wanted a different result, but this will certainly help as experience for the future.”
Barella was rather harshly sent off for a reaction foul after Eder Militao barged him into the advertising boards.
“Barella made a serious mistake, but he is intelligent, he recognised his error and apologised to the staff, his teammates, everyone. The game was still open at 1-0, it will help him to grow and hopefully this means it won’t happen again.”
It was not dissimilar to the 1-0 first leg home defeat to Real Madrid, in which Inter dominated with several big chances and failed to find the net.
“I think we created numerous scoring opportunities and positive situations, plus we were doing well up until the red card. Unfortunately, we did well in both games with Real Madrid and didn’t score goals, so evidently we’re lacking something,” continued Inzaghi.
“Without doubt, the most important thing was qualifying for the Round of 16 and we achieved that with a game in hand.
“We’ll see tomorrow’s results, there are some very strong teams in the draw and the important thing will be reaching that phase in good physical shape.”