After an exciting blockbuster between both Milanese clubs, the first leg of the Derby di Milano Coppa Italia Semi Finals ended in a 0-0 stalemate at the Stadio San Siro.
With this result, the Nerazzurri are currently win-less within their last five fixtures across all competitions. In addition, La Beneamata are have been unable to find the back of the net in 403 minutes of football against the likes of Liverpool, Sassuolo, Genoa, and the Rossoneri.
After Inter’s frustrating draw against their cross-city rivals Milan, Simone Inzaghi spoke to DAZN in an interview about his side’s overall performance this evening: “I think the derby was less spectacular compared to the other two, as there’s a lot at stake, the two teams were anxious and looking at the 180 minutes.”
“We’ll think about it in the second leg, we want to reach the Final and win another trophy, knowing this was our 36th game of the season, we need to regain sharpness, but we are working on it.
“We’re playing a lot. Apart from one error we made playing out from the back and a Handanovic save, I don’t remember other Milan chances. Romagnoli made a defensive intervention to stop Dzeko scoring from point-blank range.”
In addition, the gaffer spoke about his men’s current goal-drought: “I realise it hits the headlines when we don’t score for four games, but we are working on it, we have talented strikers who are getting back to full fitness. There is inevitably a physiological dip, as we pushed with such intensity in November, December and January.
“We lost the Serie A derby, but had dominated for 75 minutes. We weren’t as sharp this evening, but there was a Final up for grabs and both teams want to reach it, so approached it more tactically.
“Games are made of incidents. It was a bit of a tactical stalemate because so much was at stake. We are trying to recover physical and above all mental energy. We wanted to reach the Champions League Round of 16 and the Coppa Italia semi-finals with all our strength, so now we have to bear the brunt of those commitments.”
Finally, the Italian tactician spoke briefly about the return of key players Robin Gosens and Joaquin Correa: “I think it might be a record for a side on March 1 to have a game in hand and still played 36 competitive matches. I wouldn’t look at it as individuals, but in general. We’ve got Correa and Gosens back, who can really help the squad rotation options. We have a lot of players who pushed hard, we are in a transitional period, but the fitness levels are improving. We ran more than Sassuolo on the statistics from that game, even though we lost.