Simone Inzaghi maintains it was not entirely an ‘unexpected’ Champions League victory for Inter against Barcelona, but above all he wants it to be ‘the start of something’ in their season.
The Nerazzurri were the absolute underdogs going in, losing four of their last six Serie A games when Barca had won all six in the same period domestically.
The tactical plan worked perfectly, let the Blaugrana have possession at San Siro and strike on the counter, which is what happened when Hakan Calhanoglu drilled a snooker shot into the near bottom corner from outside the box.
Ousmane Dembele hit the upright, but ultimately Andre Onana had very few real saves to make.
There was controversy when Pedri saw a goal disallowed for Ansu Fati’s handling offence, then in stoppages Denzel Dumfries seemed to handle, but another angle suggested Ansu Fati got his head to it instead.
“I wouldn’t say it was unexpected. I said yesterday it was a great opportunity against one of the best teams in the world,” Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia.
“We played with aggression, determination, as it’s the only way to beat these opponents. We’d been waiting a long time for this, I am happy for the fans and the club, but we’ve achieved nothing yet, it needs to be a wonderful night that marks the beginning of something.”
Inter had been in crisis and were coming off a painful Serie A loss to Jose Mourinho’s Roma at San Siro.
“I was very, very disappointed with the result against Roma, but not the performance. Evenings like this one will do us good, we need to recover our energy now and we have ground to recover in Serie A.
“It can be the start, but we need to give a sense of consistency to this result and performance now.”
Inzaghi has been under fire and there were rumours he could be fired if things had gone differently this evening.
“I continue my work, there are moments that happen and I keep my head held high, because my staff, players and the club have done some great things over the last 15 months. I saw a squad that is solid and fights together, otherwise you don’t get a result like this.
“I am happy, but these lads are the same ones who gave me two trophies just a few months ago and they know more than anyone we now have ground to make up.”
Inter will lose by a far bigger margin at Barcelona. Probably also not manage to take 3 points from their remaining game with Plezn
It’s a lot easier to win when handball is used to disappear the goals you concede and ignored when you should be conceding a penalty… But there you go, another ‘moment of greatness’ for Interisti to celebrate. Lol.
remembered when Milan won 2-0 against Messi’s Barcelona which started Milan’s banter era
Inter amd referee. Best love story
Pathetic start of the season. Let`s see about that!