“The Credit Goes To These Players, Showing Themselves And Contributing To This Team”

It was a return to winning ways for Italian giants, Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League as they secured a 2-0 victory away from home against Borussia Dortmund to book their place in the play-off of the competition as they narrowly missed out on automatic qualification.

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The Nerazzurri knew they had a mountain to climb after losing three on the bounce in Europe’s elite competition that adopted a group phase format recently and for the last year finalist, they finished in 10th place, so just outside the direct access to the Round of 16, meaning that they will play to more matches to progress.

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They did at least manage to close the league phase with an impressive 2-0 victory at the iconic Westfalenstadion, thanks to a magnificent Federico Dimarco free kick and the stoppage-time deflected Andy Diouf finish and their manager, Cristian Chivu analysed the game at full time.

“We have what we deserve, so there’s no point looking back over what we didn’t do, but we should focus on what we did. It wasn’t easy in this stadium, with the energy that the Borussia Dortmund fans give them.” Chivu told Sky Sport Italia in his post match interview.

“We played with maturity and I feel we could’ve had more determination in the first half to attack the lines, but we were a bit too superficial. This team is working hard, the improvement over the last two months has been exponential, and this result can give a real confidence boost to the side.”

It means Inter will play either Bodo/Glimt or Jose Mourinho’s Benfica in the play-offs, after that going on to face either Manchester City or Sporting CP in the Round of 16, that is if they manage to triumph in the two-legged play-off that the draw would be made one day after this match.

Mourinho had another dramatic moment as Benfica were on the verge of elimination until their goalkeeper scored a last-gasp goal to beat Real Madrid 4-2, bumping them into the play-offs on goal difference. Of course, Chivu was part of Mourinho’s Inter squad that famously won the Champions League and Treble in 2010.

“At this moment, my only thought is on facing Davide Nicola and Cremonese on Sunday, as that is the most important game. We are forced to sleep here tonight, as the journey is too long, so we’ll train here tomorrow too. We must always think of the next match, which is always the most important.”

Dimarco scored a sensational free kick for the opening goal and was wearing the captain’s armband too, in the absence of other players. “We are very happy with how his season has gone so far, his mentality, desire to work hard and be decisive,” continued the coach.

“He’s always had the quality, thank goodness, but he is now mature and complete, so we are enjoying this version of Dimarco to the full.” Inter are dominant and aggressive in Serie A, but in the Champions League are a little more humble and ready to work on the counter-attack.

“The credit goes to these lads. I think humility is the key word for everything in this locker room, as 25 players do everything to be protagonists, because they know that they all have the opportunity to show themselves and contribute to this team.” He further added.

Then he want to single out the performances of Yann Sommer, Luis Henrique and also Andy Diouf. “Diouf had the patience to wait, realise how difficult it is to wear this jersey, the expectations that come with Inter, and he had the right spirit. I am glad he scored tonight.”

“The whole team has reached a level of maturity where hard work and humility are decisive, no matter who we are up against. We can win or lose, but we must never lose our mentality,” he concluded. Meanwhile, before kick off, club President, Beppe Marotta had confirmed their interest in Al-Ittihad winger Moussa Diaby.

The transfer window is still open, and there are reports Inter could pursue a comeback for Ivan Perisic, especially if PSV Eindhoven are eliminated from the Champions League today. “There are two considerations to make here,” replied Marotta.

“The first is that we are not in an emergency situation. The other is that we want to strengthen the squad in January, and that is not an easy thing to do. There is nothing against investment, but we have to find the right player. We are evaluating a few different alternatives and we’ll see, but right now the squad is fulfilling all expectations.”

Al-Ittihad winger Moussa Diaby was mentioned recently by Sky Sport Italia, with reports he is pushing for a move to Inter. “When I talked about players we were talking to, I will not deny that is one of the options, albeit a remote one, as he is considered important for his current squad.”

“They spent a lot of money for him, so the odds are small, but we are looking into it and will see what happens over the next few days.” Diaby only made the move from Aston Villa to Al-Ittihad for €60m in the summer of 2024 but he’s now pushing for a move 18 months after.

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The club executive also hinted that they were prepared for the play-offs even if they had a realistic chance of making it into the top eight, but in the end, they did enough but results from elsewhere managed to knock them down, especially Napoli’s home loss to Chelsea.

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