The post - match reaction: "It's a difficult result to accept; that penalty..."
Team
— 5 hours agoInter played well and fought hard, but Liverpool snatched victory in the final minutes through a controversial penalty: Zielinski, Mkhitaryan and Akanji gave their thoughts after the match.
A bitter night for Inter, who leave San Siro with a defeat after a physical, hard-fought, and well-played match, ultimately decided by Liverpool's highly disputed late penalty. Zielinski, Mkhitaryan and Akanji commented after the game:
“It hurts to lose a match like this, when you fight for 85 minutes and a penalty like that is awarded, but we have to move on. It’s hard to accept, but we need to keep our heads up, work harder, and try to change things in the next two matches. Tonight wasn’t our best performance, but we shouldn’t forget that we were up against a top-level opponent. It was a balanced game and, in my opinion, a draw would have been fair, but the referee decided to award a penalty for what felt like a dive. I tried to give my best for the team, for the path we’re on, and it was clear that all my teammates fought until the end. After a month without playing, I tried to stay on the pitch as long as possible and I’ll work even harder. Now we put this match behind us, analyse it, and prepare properly for the game against Genoa, because it has to be approached in the best possible way.”
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
“It’s really tough to lose a match in the way that we did tonight. I think we were the better team on the pitch and didn’t deserve to lose, especially given the way it happened with a penalty like that. I can’t comment on my teammates’ injuries: though it might be linked to how many games we’re playing, injuries are part of football and can happen. I just hope they can return as soon as possible to help the team. This is the second Champions League match in a row where we’ve played well and still lost. We could have won at least one of them, or at least taken a point, but we didn’t manage to. It hurts, but the positive takeaway is that if we keep playing like this, improve a couple of details, and have a bit more luck, we’ll still have a real chance of finishing in the top eight.”
Manuel Akanji
“We’re disappointed and angry, because we felt we played well, but perhaps we were just missing that little something in the final third. As for the refereeing decisions, I don’t know – on the pitch it never looked like a foul. If those are given, then from now on every challenge in the box will be a penalty.”
Piotr Zieliński