Simone Inzaghi admits Inter were ‘not accustomed to losing’ and while he is ‘proud’ of his players, the defeat to Atletico Madrid ‘should hurt, because we had it in our grasp.’
The Nerazzurri were the favourites going in with a 1-0 first leg lead and went in front at the Wanda Metropolitano too with the Federico Dimarco counter-attack.
However, Antoine Griezmann cancelled it out moments later and Memphis Depay scored at the 87th minute to level the tie on aggregate, after Marcus Thuram and Nicolò Barella missed sitters.
“There is disappointment for the club and the whole Inter family, but I told the lads they ought to be proud of the journey they’ve been on,” Inzaghi told Amazon Prime Video Italia.
“We were unbeaten in eight games, then obviously we should’ve done better in certain moments. We had the game in hand, we made a lot of mistakes and that made the difference.”
In truth, Rodrigo Riquelme should’ve won it in the last minute of normal time only to balloon over the bar, and both sides had chances in extra time, but Atleti emerged victorious on penalties.
“We could’ve done more in the first leg, but here we should’ve held on to the lead given to us by Dimarco for longer, instead we allowed them straight back into the game. That lifted them and the crowd.”
Inter had hoped to go one better after reaching the Champions League Final last season, but instead go out in the Round of 16.
“This team was not accustomed to losing. Defeat has to hurt, we had qualification in our grasp,” added Inzaghi.
“I am nonetheless super proud to coach this team. It is disappointing for all of us, but there are 10 games to go in Serie A and we want to achieve a very important objective.
“The lads have to hold their heads up high, knowing that details make the difference at this level. We should’ve closed the game, we had the chances in the second half. After that, penalties are a lottery and they did better.”
This means that all the Italian teams are out of the Champions League before the quarter-finals and this could put that fifth place in next year’s expanded tournament at risk too.
Grasps? Atleti deserved to put it to bed in normal time. if not for Riquelme blazing it over the bar and depay hitting the post, it would’ve been good night! 🤣
This is he worst inter performance have since this season.
The defence collapsed.
Inter find it difficult to penetrate athletico defence.
Lautaro,is a wasteful striker.same thing he did in final against man city.
Italian teams in UCL played there final today.
Too negative, low quality ball control. Scared to win Inter show their deficiencies once again in big matches. The only thing that they had “in their grasp” was Savic’s nuts.
Lazio and Napoli were emphatically beaten and Inter lost – but it could have gone either way. Not a good season for Serie A in the champions league.