Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi has joked that he wouldn’t like to ‘face Liverpool every game’ but insists his side should be proud of how they performed against the six-time European Cup winners.
Second-half goals from Bobby Firmino and Mo Salah ensured the Reds will take a 2-0 lead back to Anfield for the second leg next month and left Inzaghi claiming Inter ‘deserved more’.
“We hope not to face Liverpool every game!” Inzaghi told Amazon Prime Italia (via TEAMtalk).
“I am happy and proud of the team, unfortunately during our best period of the game we were not rewarded with the goal we deserved, then Liverpool scored at the first distraction we had.
“We certainly deserved more, but this performance has to augur well for what is to come in the future. Liverpool are one of the two best teams in Europe and in my view, Inter held out well and deserved more.
“We know these evenings can be like this, but it has to give us a self-esteem boost, because it was an excellent performance.
“It’s difficult to comment after a result like this, but it has to be a starting point for Inter at this level. I think this is the strongest opponent we’ve faced this season,” he concluded.
The Italian’s comments prove how much we are respected by him and his team.
Inter did perform well at times during the game but exceptional performances from Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk at the heart of our defence ensured we came away with yet another clean sheet and maintained our 100% win rate in this season’s competition.
This tie is far from over, though, and we need to ensure we put in another solid display against the Nerazzurri at Anfield next month.