Simone Inzaghi feels the whole Inter team contributed to their victory away to RB Salzburg. ‘Qualifying for the Round of 16 with two games to spare makes us very proud.’
The Nerazzurri made six changes to the starting XI that beat Atalanta at the weekend and took a long time to finally break down the Austrians.
It required the substitutes, as Nicolò Barella saw his shot charged down by Mads Bistrup’s arm for a penalty that Lautaro Martinez converted.
“Regardless of who came off the bench, we played a very good game against a team with remarkable physicality. They are young and run so hard. We did well to hold out and then controlled it in the final 20 minutes,” Inzaghi told Amazon Prime Italia.
“Lautaro Martinez is very important for us, he is always so eager to play, but I think Alexis Sanchez and Marcus Thuram did good work too.”
Hakan Calhanoglu struggled to make his usual impact on the game, partly because he was playing in a much deeper role than he is accustomed to.
“We opted to keep him close to the defence, so that we could build out from the back with four players. It was a plan to dilate the Salzburg team and force them to open up a bit.”
The win is enough to qualify them for the Round of 16, where it will be a head-to-head with Real Sociedad at San Siro for who takes top spot and in theory the better draw.
“Qualifying for the Round of 16 with two games to spare makes us very proud, it had not happened for a while. We are satisfied, but also know that there are still another two matches to play and we won’t underestimate them.
“No Champions League fixtures are easy. There were moments in the first half today when we struggled, but we defended as a unit and allowed Salzburg fewer opportunities than they created at San Siro.”
Inter are not the only club already in the knock-out phase of the competition, as they are joined by Real Sociedad, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Real Madrid and RB Leipzig.