Simone Inzaghi criticizes Inter Milan performance: “Not good enough”

Inter Milan head coach Simone Inzaghi was critical of his team’s performance in their 1-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League game on Tuesday.

After the game in conversation with Sky Sport via FCInterNewsInzaghi admitted that the Nerazzurri could not cope with Xabi Alonso’s highly motivated team.

Inter were almost non-existent as an attacking force and seemed content with a point from the start without ever testing Matej Kovar.

In fact, the fact that Inter finished the game without a shot on goal best illustrates Simone Inzaghi’s incredibly conservative approach.

For some reason, Inzaghi trusted that his defense would hold up for 90 minutes after registering five straight European shutouts.

However, Inter’s lack of ambition in the final third ultimately backfired and made their path to automatic knockout qualification difficult.

After a subpar performance at the BayArena, Inzaghi will have to regroup his troops for the final of the league phase.

Inter face Sparta Prague and Monaco in the final two rounds and will likely need all six points to secure direct promotion.

But that’s a matter for another day as the Champions League returns for the penultimate round in January 2025.

Simone Inzaghi praises Inter Milan’s performances after their disheartening UEFA Champions League defeat at Bayer Leverkusen

“It wasn’t one of our best games” Inzaghi started. “But we came up against a first-class team who started better and hit the crossbar early on.

“After that we controlled the game – maybe too much as we should have been braver.

“We lacked quality in the last 25 meters and once we had the game under control, a defeat like this is frustrating because it ends our unbeaten run.

“Still, it doesn’t stop our trip.

“Tomorrow we will probably be in the top eight and in January our fate is in our hands with two challenging games.

“There is some regret about conceding a goal.”

Inzaghi also created a chaotic situation in Inter’s penalty area, which led to Leverkusen’s late winner.

“Yes, that’s right. There was also a distraction,” he added.

“Darmian saw it at the last moment, Mukiele tried a kick and then the ball came back into play.

“We had to be more careful. We played worse in the second half than in the first, but there were no warning signs.

“There are regrets, but that’s Champions League football. We go forward with our heads held high.”

However, Inzaghi is confident tonight’s upset will not derail Inter’s quest for a place in the top eight.

“Not much, but with a positive result we would have left Bayer behind us and come closer to our goal.

“Now we’ll see. We will think about it in January because at the moment we have the League, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa.

“We will analyze it calmly, but there is no need to think too much – it was not our best game compared to others, but we have great respect for the opponent.”

Finally he agreed with the reporter and admitted that Inter were far too passive.

“I agree, we have done far too little. We only risked the incident on the crossbar, but we definitely had to do more.

“As we started to build up possession, I felt like they were struggling to cope with our game.

“We should have added more quality, but today we didn’t show the level we are capable of.”