Simone Inzaghi congratulates Inter for ‘absolutely dominating’ the Derby della Madonnina and beating rivals Milan twice in three weeks, revealing how he reacted to Stefano Pioli’s tactical surprise.
This was not quite as dominant as the 3-0 Supercoppa Italiana victory in Riyadh last month, but still a very strong performance with barely any risks for Andre Onana to deal with.
“It was without doubt a great performance, I congratulated the lads. They were determined, concentrated, focused, we absolutely dominated and winning the derby twice in 20 days was something we wanted to share with our fans,” Inzaghi told DAZN.
“Now we look forward with confidence, we have Lukaku and Brozovic back after four months, despite missing them we still reached the Champions League knockouts, the Coppa Italia semi-final and are second in Serie A.”
Milan surprised many by changing to a 3-5-2 formation that effectively mirrored Inter, leaving Rafael Leao on the bench.
“To be honest, there was talk for a few days that Milan might shake things up, so I concentrated on my own team and our shape. We played very well against Atalanta on Tuesday, I reiterated to the team that it all depended on what we did and how we approached it.”
Lautaro Martinez got his head to the Hakan Calhanoglu corner, but the ball was also in the net another two times, with Romelu Lukaku penalised for a push on Malick Thiaw and Lautaro flagged inches offside.
“For the last 12 months, Lautaro has played at extraordinary levels with such consistency. I wasn’t even able to rest him, due to Lukaku and Correa injuries. However, talking just about him is reductive, because today the whole team was dominant and a pleasure to watch.
“The only negative was that we dominated and still left it open until the end with a one-goal lead. We could’ve been more precise in the finishing and the final ball, but after all we did come off a tiring Coppa Italia quarter-final with Atalanta on Tuesday.”
The victory still consolidated their position in second place, albeit still 13 points adrift of leaders Napoli, but they are now six points in front of their rivals Milan.
It is remarkable to consider how badly the Inter season had started, with some calling for Inzaghi’s dismissal, when looking at their results now.
“We made a few mistakes, but also were missing some key players. You cannot do without Lukaku and Brozovic for four months, while we were also in a Champions League group with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
“We have 43 points, it could’ve been a few more, but now we just have to keep playing like this and try to go all the way in every competition, because we are Inter and that is our duty. Let’s not forget that in October we were ninth in the table, since then we’ve won 10 out of 13 games.”
There was no opponent, boring derby