CESENA – It was a one-goal victory for Inter over Cesena this evening, but the win was more resounding than the scoreline suggests. Walter Mazzarri started his post-match interview by underlining the importance of the victory: “It’s a win that can help us to turn a corner and recover from a difficult period.”
When asked if Cesena were hard done by to see their goalkeeper sent for an early bath, Mazzarri said: “I’m in a favour of a change to the rules on goalkeeper sending offs in cases like Leali’s today. The letter of the law says it’s a red card, but perhaps the basic principle needs modifying.
“In regard to my team, I really appreciated their will to win today. Having said that, we’ll need to go back and look at a number of things. We wasted too many counter-attacks and gave away too many fouls in crucial areas of the pitch. Perhaps we were a bit naïve in that respect. We’ll take the three points and work on being more clinical,” said Mazzarri.
“We spurned a lot of counter-attacking opportunities; we rushed them. You could see that we were under pressure and lacking composure in the final third. We need to relax more. We could’ve sewn the game up and saved ourselves the jitters in the closing stages where anything can happen, really. In terms of our peformance, it seemed like we wanted to walk the ball into the back of the net. We’ve got players who can shoot from distance and they should be doing that,” continued the Inter coach.
Asked about Palacio, Mazzarri replied: “As soon as he’s back to full fitness, you’ll see the best of him.” The Nerazzurri manager was also quizzed on his decision not to start Nemanja Vidic: “I left him on the bench as part of a normal rotation policy – the tempo of the game is getting faster and faster; it’s played at 100mph. Rotation is necessary because if you can’t get to the ball first, there can be problems.
“Campagnaro is getting back up to full speed; he’s been injured and I’ve not been able to call on him. He’s only been back for a short time and I decided to put my faith in him. He’s an important player who I’ve had with me for many years; I think a great deal of him,” he said.
Mazzarri was also asked whether it had been a difficult week due to the upheaval at board level. “When I arrived at Inter, things changed. Moratti wanted me here and I got on well with him. I’m a very important employee of this club, but ultimately only an employee. My intention was not to disrespect Moratti; I just wanted to say that club issues should be solved at club level. I already talked about this yesterday in the press conference and have nothing more to add,” concluded Mazzarri.
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