Spalletti: "We should have secured it earlier but it was a deserved win"

MILAN - LucianoSpalletti’s Inter returned to winning ways, picking up three points for the tenth time this season thanks to Mauro Icardi’s penalty. "With these performances, our captain is showing every aspect of being a perfect forward," said the Coach to Sky. "In the last two games, he’s done an extraordinary job in moving deeper to create space for his teammates. The chip from the spot? I think that Mauro watched the goalkeeper and saw him move early. He wanted to go for a finish that gave him the certainty of knowing that he’d score."

"Tonight, we did well but without showing the necessary intensity and we didn’t have the right bursts of energy. We needed to show more ferocity but we did well on the pitch. I wanted to give a sign with my substitutions, we were a bit off-balance but we absolutely needed to bring home the result. We gave up a few too many shots but considering how the game went, we should have wrapped things up earlier on our way to getting the win.

"We lost the ball in a silly way at times and we must learn how to handle it differently. We often reached their backline without the right quality in our final ball. To be winners, other than just having a good squad, you need to be more clinical and get the best out of advantageous situations. We mustn’t mess up our decision making. Joao Mario? He’s improving. He just has to learn how to utilise his tidiness at certain points during a game. He will be very useful for the rest of the season.

To conclude, the tactician also responded to Tuesday’s draw with PSV: “My job is to defend the team and Inter, in line with our fans.”