Stellini: ‘Inter black-out at Sassuolo’

Antonio Conte lost his voice, so Inter assistant manager Cristian Stellini explained the “black-out” during their 4-3 win over Sassuolo.

The Nerazzurri had been in complete control and leading 4-1 with braces from Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez, but a late flurry set up a tense finale.

“Conte is tired and had a fever before the match, so he was able to stand on the touchline for the game, but lost his voice,” Stellini told DAZN.

Antonio Conte lost his voice, so Inter assistant manager Cristian Stellini explained the “black-out” during their 4-3 win over Sassuolo.

The Nerazzurri had been in complete control and leading 4-1 with braces from Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez, but a late flurry set up a tense finale.

“Conte is tired and had a fever before the match, so he was able to stand on the touchline for the game, but lost his voice,” Stellini told DAZN.

“It’s never easy to resume after a break for international duty. We had 70 excellent minutes today when we dominated, followed by a black-out that will need to be analysed. There is more work to be done, evidently, even if we are back on track.

“We simply ran out of energy towards the end, Sassuolo stepped up the tempo and we couldn’t clear our lines. We kept losing the ball cheaply and that made us get increasingly pinned back. Sassuolo scored two easy goals and we’ve got to work on these aspects to eliminate the ‘Pazza Inter’ identity.

“We’ve got to learn how to lock down and take home games that we dominated for 75 minutes.”