Inzaghi: ‘Inter still licking our wounds’

Simone Inzaghi acknowledges Inter are suffering from physical and mental fatigue after a Coppa Italia semi-final draw with Milan, failing to score in 403 minutes of football. ‘We’re still licking our wounds.’

It was another fairly disappointing performance from the Nerazzurri, who are now without a competitive win in almost a full month.

Samir Handanovic had the toughest save of the game on Rafael Leao’s curler, but the 0-0 result means Milan have the advantage now.

Coppa Italia | Milan 0-0 Inter: Derby stalemate leaves semi-final open

As they were technically the ‘home’ side this evening, Milan can qualify for the Final on ‘away’ goals if the second leg is a score draw, the same situation as the Champions League semi-final in 2003.

“I think the derby was less spectacular compared to the other two, as there’s a lot at stake, the two teams were anxious and looking at the 180 minutes,” Inzaghi told Mediaset.

“We’ll think about it in the second leg, we want to reach the Final and win another trophy, knowing this was our 36^th game of the season, we need to regain sharpness, but we are working on it.”

Inter seemed particularly exhausted and the pressures of playing in the Champions League may well be starting to weigh on their resources. There was some good news late on, with Joaquin Correa’s comeback and the debut of Robin Gosens.

“We’re playing a lot. Apart from one error we made playing out from the back and a Handanovic save, I don’t remember other Milan chances. Romagnoli made a defensive intervention to stop Dzeko scoring from point-blank range.”

Inter have now failed to score in 403 minutes of competitive football, firing blanks against Liverpool, Sassuolo, Genoa and now Milan.

“I realise it hits the headlines when we don’t score for four games, but we are working on it, we have talented strikers who are getting back to full fitness. There is inevitably a physiological dip, as we pushed with such intensity in November, December and January.

“We lost the Serie A derby, but had dominated for 75 minutes. We weren’t as sharp this evening, but there was a Final up for grabs and both teams want to reach it, so approached it more tactically.

“Games are made of incidents. It was a bit of a tactical stalemate because so much was at stake. We are trying to recover physical and above all mental energy. We wanted to reach the Champions League Round of 16 and the Coppa Italia semi-finals with all our strength, so now we have to bear the brunt of those commitments.

“I think it might be a record for a side on March 1 to have a game in hand and still played 36 competitive matches.”

Key players like Nicolò Barella and Lautaro Martinez seem particularly out of sorts at the moment.

“I wouldn’t look at it as individuals, but in general. We’ve got Correa and Gosens back, who can really help the squad rotation options. We have a lot of players who pushed hard, we are in a transitional period, but the fitness levels are improving. We ran more than Sassuolo on the statistics from that game, even though we lost.

“I think the draw was the right result. We are still licking our wounds after losing the Serie A derby 2-1 that looked completely different until the 75^th minute.”