Inter boss Simone Inzaghi was rightly pleased with how his side played in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash against Inter, but believes they could have scored even more.
Milan had a nightmare start to the game against their city rivals conceding twice inside the opening 11 minutes thanks to two rather preventable goals. The first was an Edin Dzeko finish from a corner, and the second was Henrikh Mkhitaryan strolling through the heart of the defence and firing past Maignan.
Inzaghi spoke to Amazon Prime Video after the game to reflect on what was a well-executed plan for the most part from his team and a game that puts them in command, with MilanNews relaying his quotes.
“I am very satisfied. An extraordinary first half, we could have scored more than two goals. Great game, we’ve already been through some rounds, we know we’re ahead, we’ll have our fans with us. We know that we have to make a huge effort for a dream,” he said.
How did the players perform?
“They had heart and mind, they covered every inch of the pitch. Whoever came off the bench helped us. However, we know that there are still 90 minutes left.”
How will you handle this week?
“In 72 hours we have a very important match against Sassuolo, we will have to be good at recovering physical and mental energy. Some players came off bruised, we will prepare for Sassuolo in the best possible way.”
The Nerazzurri are certainly in pole position to reach the final in Istanbul at this point, and it will take a much better performance from Milan to put them in some difficulty.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda, bottom line is we are notorious for coming out, matters not who we play, and getting “punched in the mouth” then playing catch up. Don’t know if Rebic was on the bench but he is the kinda ruffian we need just like Krunic. Now we have to take the attitude next game, ” why quit when you are losing” get at least tied and get to penalty kicks, we got Maignan, Forza Milano
I don’t often comment here, but what I saw in the game was shocking. Asleep for the first twenty minutes, when the game could have been put out of sight, and just disastrous all over the pitch.
Every single one of those players should be reading comments from clowns like Peter Crouch and feeling angry. This Milan team is nothing compared to what we are used to as fans, but they were still champions of Italy last year.
The players themselves need to get angry and realise that for many of them, they will never have another chance like this. Some players have went their entire career without getting this close to playing a European Cup Final. If they roll over and die once more, they should be ashamed of themselves.
You can blame the coach all you want, but if the players are sleepwalking through a game of this magnitude, then there’s not much else he can do. Once they’re on the pitch, it’s up to them to perform as well as they can.