PALERMO - Hours after becoming a father for the third time, Walter Samuel kept things tight at the back as Inter beat Palermo 2-0 in Saturday evening's Serie A clash.

"I'm dedicating this victory to my son who was born last night, and to all my family," said a proud Walter, whose wife Cecilia gave birth to Francisco in the early hours of the morning.

"I'm still not one hundred percent," said the Argentine on his performance in Palermo, "but the most important thing is that we won our third consecutive game in the league and that we remain on top.

"I don't like comparing this team with the Inter of past years. They talk a lot about Inter and we get criticism, but we showed again this evening that we always have a great desire to win, and this is the most important thing.

"We have a very large squad with lots of defenders and there's always faith in those who play. I'm sorry for Ivan who would have wanted to play an important match like the Juve one. It will be an important match but not decisive because there's still a very long way to go until the end."