Walter Mazzarri held a press-conference after Inter beat Icelandic side Stjernan convincingly 3-0 in the first leg of the last qualifying round to the Europa League.
“I’m pleased with everything, with the result and how we played. I’m pleased with the progress the team is making, in particular with how we played in the first hour of play because we were patient and calm until we managed to break the deadlock which wasn’t easy seeing as how they played with 10 men behind the ball. They were very good tactically, there wasn’t a lot of space to play through so we needed to stay calm to be able to maneuver them.”
“Which we did, with a good possession of the ball and we risked little or nothing. Until Icardi was able to break the deadlock thanks to some good football. Then it was very important to score again just after the break with a great goal after having executed a great move. After 2-0 we paid close attention to how we played so that we didn’t concede any counter-attacks, after that our performance dropped a little and we conceded a little bit but this was more due to our fitness level not being on the same level as theirs seeing as how they are much more prepared from an athletic point of view.”
Mazzarri then made a plea to the supporters ahead of the return leg: “I think that this 3-0 result could push the crowd to come to San Siro because there we can have some fun in what will be our season debut at home. I hope a lot of people will come, this would be a great thing for the lads as well. This is an Inter that is growing and that promises good things to come.”
“Im happy with everyone’s performance, I’m happy with the progress Hernanes is making and also Kovacic’s performance because they had to play box to box. Dodó did some interesting things, he needs to continue on this path. We believe in him. Mvila? He has grown a lot, we knew that he needed to play. He showed authority, he was calm, cool and collected in both attack and defense” Mazzarri concluded.
