This season, Inter Milan have only suffered three defeats in all competitions, two of which came in the derby against AC Milan. In Serie A and the final of the Italian Super Cup, the “Neroazzurri” not only lost after leading 2-0 at the start of the second half (thanks to goals from Martinez and Taremi), but also missed the opportunity to become the first team in Calcio history to win four consecutive Super Cups. After the match, Inter coach Simone Inzaghi told Sport Mediaset that his team should have controlled the situation and their opponents better, despite a significant number of injuries. The squad’s shortcomings and the large number of matches led the “Neroazzurri” to concede more than half of their goals (10 out of 19) after the 80th minute – it was the late strikes of Christian Pulisic and Tammy Abraham which allowed Milan to make a return to the Super Cup for the second time in a row:
– First of all, we have to congratulate AC Milan – they did not give up despite being two goals behind, while we go home with immense disappointment. We gave everything we had, but it was clear that at 2-0 we needed to control the situation better, and at 2-1 when we lost a relatively easy ball. Although we had a few chances to make it 3-1, brilliant saves from Mike Maignan denied Dumfries and Carlos Augusto, whose first shot hit the post. Unfortunately we conceded a second goal, and at 2-2 it was painfully bitter to lose. We’ve been in this situation before, and the team has always bounced back – now we have to regroup, despite a few more injuries and six games coming up in eighteen days.
– Pavard, Acerbi, Thuram, Calhanoglu – they are very important players, but when we have to play every three days we cannot rely only on one individual. Our defense is missing many players, but the available squad continues to carry this burden, and I can only thank them for that. Bastoni received a blow to the eye; he said he needed five or six minutes to recover, but by that time De Vrij was having muscle problems – I waited a bit and felt Bastoni was in better shape to finish the match as De Vrij. We need everyone, and we hope the defenders can come back to help with the rotation. In many teams that play so many matches, the intensity level really drops. In the first half, Milan’s pressing was not so high, but we made mistakes ourselves, and after the break Milan introduced not only fresh players, but also very fast attackers. However, we still needed to control the match better; It’s clearly a painful defeat, and it’s very disappointing to lose in the final when we were 2-0 up, but it’s clearly situations like this that allow us to learn some truly valuable lessons.
