Cristian Chivu was delighted with what he described as a ‘wonderful’ team display from Inter in their 2-0 victory over Como in Serie A on Sunday evening, and though he feels that the last nine matches could have ‘gone better’, he argues that they could have gone worse as well.
Strikes from Pio Esposito and Marcus Thuram within the first 20 minutes gave Inter a two-goal lead against Como, which they were able to hold onto right the way through until the full-time whistle.
You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.
Chivu speaks after Inter 2-0 Como: ‘Last nine games could have gone better, but also could have gone worse’
The Como victory was Inter’s last game before the international break. They have played nine matches since the last round of international fixtures, which came to an end in October.
“I’d start by mentioning the fact that we’ve had nine games in 27 days, which has taken a lot of energy and brought lots of ups and downs,” said Chivu after full-time on Sunday.
“We always want to try and improve, but sometimes you have to swallow your pride and just work hard and prepare with the right mentality for the next games in front of you.
“Today, we raised the pace and intensity and our preparation served us well in terms of quality and pressure. We played as a team. We did well in the first half from all points of view, and then sometimes you need to know how to manage other moments of the game. I congratulate the boys, who were wonderful today.”
Chivu was asked whether the derby loss against Milan last weekend helped to spur on the Nerazzurri over the last week.
He said: “There’s always room for improvement. You can’t always have everything and be perfect every time. You have to accept that the season is long and there are lots and lots of games.”
Chivu is encouraged with the things that he is seeing from his players off the pitch as much as the things they do on it, praising the squad for holding each other to account.
“Things are in the right place. The injured players, the ones who are tired after getting back home at 4am after away games, all looking at each other when they win and when they don’t win. We lost the derby, but we had to move forwards. We have to pull in the same direction and carry on in what is a big and ambitious season.
“We need the right attitude. We reacted after losing in the derby and against Club Brugge, after which there was a lot of bitterness. After these last nine games, I can say that we definitely could have done better, but that we also could have done worse.”
Inter were able to stop Como from playing their own game in San Siro on Sunday, limiting their usually quality attacking play.
“It all starts with the forwards,” Chivu explained.
“They remained focused and took the ball away from them, arriving in the right place at the right time with their pressing. We knew that we needed to have compactness to cut off passing lanes. We knew that Como prefer to attack than defend. We were able to exploit what we had in our game plan.”
