Both Davide Calabria and Olivier Giroud congratulated a ‘deserving’ Inter side for reaching the Champions League final at the hands of Milan after the Rossoneri fell to a 3-0 loss on aggregate over the two legs at San Siro to their bitter rivals.
Having fallen behind by two early goals in the second half of the first leg last Wednesday, Stefano Pioli’s side were presented with a monumental task to overturn the deficit, particularly with Inter holding the ‘home’ advantage in the return fixture.
Still, Milan were left to rue missed opportunities in the second leg, and Calabria believes that an early goal “would have changed the game.”
Speaking to Sky, the Rossoneri captain said: “I don’t feel like it didn’t work out, we created but failed to capitalise when we had the chances. Scoring a goal would have changed the game. It’s a shame. I want to see the glass half full, no one expected we could get this far, and we played a good game today.
He then sent his best wishes to Tuesday’s opponents after securing their place in the final in Istanbul.
“I congratulate Inter because they were good and better than us in front of goal in these two games,” he said. “They are a strong, complete team and honestly we need to learn and gain experience from this because we want to achieve Champions League status in the league and play in it again next year.”
Similarly, Giroud, who spoke to BT Sport, claimed that Milan had enough opportunities to get themselves back into the game.
He told viewers: “I think at that level the small details make the difference. We could have scored in the first half today but in the end we didn’t score. We hoped until the end but after Martinez scored it was even more difficult. We beat them already in Serie A but I think in these two games they deserve to go through.
“If people would have told me that I would win the Scudetto in my first year and in the second year we play in the semi-final of the Champions League with a young group, not so much experience, I would have signed straight away.”
The Frenchman then stressed the importance of being able to overcome Tuesday night’s setback, especially with their Champions League status at threat entering the final three games of the Serie A season.
He said: “It’s painful to lose the semi-final of the Champions League for this club, especially against Inter but we have to be proud of what we have achieved so far and we need to carry on to bounce back this weekend to grab the opportunity to play Champions League football next year.”
Giroud can only really talk a good game. that’s about it.