Simone Inzaghi admits ‘some people couldn’t wait’ for Inter to slip up, so they had to react to the critics with a 6-0 demolition of Lazio. ‘I am very proud to be their coach.’
It is always an emotional return to the Stadio Olimpico for Inzaghi, who spent most of his career with Lazio as first a player and then coach, so he was in no mood to gloat after this thumping victory.
They ran riot in the Capital with goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, Federico Dimarco, Nicolò Barella, Denzel Dumfries, Carlos Augusto and Marcus Thuram in the heavy 6-0 result, which surely sends a message in the Scudetto race.
“Above all, beating a team that was in an excellent period of form was important. We didn’t lose our shape in the first 20 minutes, then raised the level and after the third goal it was all downhill,” Inzaghi told DAZN.
“These lads have been giving me this huge effort for three and a half years, I am very proud to be their coach. We know we’ve achieved nothing yet, but it is a very good win against a team that was in great shape.”
Inter scored with six different players, so does this confirm the title holders remain the strongest overall squad in the league?
“The verdict will be given on the pitch,” replied Inzaghi.
“This is the way we prepared the game after Leverkusen, we knew Lazio’s qualities and the lads had the right interpretation. Now we have a game in hand, after the last two in Serie A for this year we’ve got the Supercoppa Italiana and it gets even more complicated.”
Inzaghi hit back at Inter critics
Before this triumph, Inter had only won one of their head-to-head clashes this season in Serie A, losing to Milan, drawing against Juventus and Napoli, but were also coming off a 1-0 Champions League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen.
This puts them on 34 points, technically within reach of Atalanta on 37 considering they have a game in hand.
“We’ve been very consistent over the last two and a half months in Serie A, but so have many other sides, including Lazio. You can see the table, it’s still very tight.
“The goal against Parma irritated me because we didn’t deserve it for the way that we were playing,” said Inzaghi of that 3-1 victory, spoiling the clean sheet.
“These lads deserve applause, because we’ve been playing non-stop for a month without Acerbi and Pavard, so we don’t have as many options to rotate. I had several players booked today as well, so I had to bring in Darmian as a centre-back and he did it with great intelligence.”
Inzaghi was praised for the way he has transformed the 3-5-2 tactics from the approach taken by predecessor Antonio Conte at Inter, and while he tried to deflect the compliments from the DAZN pundits, he also took a moment to clap back at the critics.
“The thing I am proudest of is the way these players put the effort in every time, which is not easy playing at this tempo and so often. It’s a great group, I am trying to rotate as much as possible because they all deserve to play.
“There were many people who since we lost to Milan in September could not wait for us to slip up, which we did in Leverkusen. A lot was said, but fortunately, my players and I don’t listen to the media and just keep focusing on the game.”
