Simone Inzaghi admits he’s ‘very angry’ with Inter Milan following defeat to Sassuolo
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Published 20/02/2022 at 22:00 GMT
Having lost 2-0 to Alessio Dionisi’s side at San Siro, Inter Milan’s grip on the Scudetto seems significantly weaker. Given that Sassuolo have already beaten Juventus and AC Milan away from home this season, Simone Inzaghi was understandably frustrated that his players had failed to see the upset coming and suggested they hadn’t approached the game in the right way.
Stefan de Vrij and his team-mates look downcast at the final whistle
Image credit: Getty Images
Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi has admitted that he is “very angry” with his team following their 2-0 defeat to Sassuolo at San Siro.
The Nerazzurri went behind after only eight minutes when Hakan Calhanoglu lost the ball in midfield and Giacomo Raspadori rifled home from just inside the area. They conceded again midway through the first half when Gianluca Scamacca connected with Hamed Traore’s curling cross into the box and thundered a header past Samir Handanovic via the inside of the post.
Inter huffed and puffed as they tried to find a way back into the game, with Milan Skriniar, Ivan Perisic, Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko – the latter having come off the bench at half time – all passing up excellent opportunities to score.
Stefan de Vrij finally put the ball in the back of the net in injury time but, in a moment which summed up the hosts’ night, it was ruled out for a handball from Skriniar in the build-up.
Inter remain second in Serie A, two points behind AC Milan with a game in hand after their city rivals could only muster up a 2-2 draw with rock-bottom Salernitana on Saturday. Their grip on the Scudetto now seems significantly weaker, however, with Napoli only a point behind them in third and unbeaten in six league games.
Given that Sassuolo have already beaten Juventus and AC Milan away from home this season, Inzaghi was understandably frustrated that his players had failed to see the upset coming. “I am very angry with the approach, because we had three days since Wednesday’s game [against Liverpool], we talked about the fact Sassuolo beat Juve and Milan away, they play great football and we had to be wary,” he said.
“We tried to do everything in the second half, created so many chances and were unlucky, but the fact remains we should’ve had a different approach. Sassuolo had great technical quality, they were fresher physically and it showed.
“We will analyse the situation, we know there are 13 games to go, we are all up there and want to keep going forward. The fact is, a team that wants to win the Scudetto cannot get the approach as wrong as we did today.”
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Dzeko wasn’t the only switch Inzaghi made at the break, with Denzel Dumfries also coming on as Roberto Gagliardini and Matteo Darmian made way. Inzaghi suggested his only regret was that he wasn’t able to make more drastic alterations, saying: “I would’ve happily changed more than two at half time. We lost some of our organisation, we tried to open it up again, but we have to analyse what went wrong today.
“There’s another match in four days, we know that we play continually and need to be stronger than absences, bans, injuries, setbacks, everything. We’re all in there and will see what happens at the end of the season.”
Inter’s next match is against Genoa on Friday evening, with the Rossoblu currently second-bottom of the table.
AC Milan face struggling Udinese earlier in the day but, in the meantime, Napoli could go second with a win against Cagliari on Monday.
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