MILAN: Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi commended his side for their maturity and impressive mental resilience after they avenged last week’s defeat by Fiorentina with a 2-1 victory in the re-match on Monday, with substitute Marko Arnautovic’s first league goal of the season keeping them within striking distance of Serie A leaders Napoli.

The win was revenge for Fiorentina’s 3-0 win in last week’s rescheduled league game and moved Inter, who now have 54 points, to within one point of Napoli, with Inzaghi praising the players’ ability to learn from past mistakes.

“The players were excellent; we were supported by the fans, and together we won a decisive match for our journey. We approached both halves well, as a mature team,” he said.

“We faced Fiorentina as we did on Thursday, and it required patience to move the ball. However, we were faster, better at second balls, and more balanced. We must continue our journey, which is great both in the Champions League and in the league. We can’t stop; we need to keep going, knowing that there are other teams also who performs well, who aren’t giving up.”

Inzaghi added that the team’s mental reset following their recent defeat was key, noting how they quickly bounced back after the lacklustre performance.

“I tried to lighten the mood for the players, along with the staff. We didn’t do a retreat so they could be with their families,” he said. “I told them not to listen too much (to criticism), and they were good. They didn’t listen, recovering their energy and putting in a great performance, which wasn’t guaranteed.”

More than 67,000 fans at the San Siro saw Arnautovic glance home the winner with his head, seven minutes into the second half.

Inter took a first-half lead thanks to the intervention of in-form striker Lautaro Martinez. His header took a deflection on the way in and was given as an own goal by Marin Pongracic.

Fiorentina levelled a minute before halftime with the help of the video referee. The match referee initially waved away shouts of a handball by Matteo Darmian but awarded a spot kick after looking at the VAR, and Rolando Mandragora made no mistake from the spot.

But Arnautovic replaced injured Marcus Thuram and his close-range header off a cross from Carlos Augusto was a killer blow for the Viola, who remain in sixth place on the Serie A table and three points behind fourth-placed Lazio.

“We need to show what we’re made of on the pitch,” said Arnautovic to DAZN. “Today we got three important points and we’re close to Napoli but it’s not done, we’ve got a long season ahead us and we can only think about winning games.”

Augusto admitted that the win was important following the poor performance in the previous match at Fiorentina. “There was anger because in Florence we weren’t ourselves, it’s normal to be criticised, today we showed our strength again,” he said.

Fiorentina manager Raffaele Palladino was left frustrated with the way Inter scored their first goal.

The manager believed that the entire ball had gone out of play at the byline, hence a goal-kick should have been awarded. But the referee let the action continue, which ended up with Inter winning a corner that led to Pongracic scoring the own goal that handed Inter the lead.

“I never talk about referees, I don’t judge them, and I’ve promised myself never to judge a refereeing error. But of course, we were a bit angry about Inter’s goal,” Palladino said.“If we have a tool that is there to help referees make fewer mistakes, we can’t fail to intervene on an objective error. The ball went out by about 20cm. These are decisive details.”

Palladino added he was proud of the two matches his side had played in the last four days against Inter despite Monday’s loss.

“I think they produced a masterpiece on Thursday, and it wasn’t easy,” he said. “They’ve increased our confidence and self-awareness. But we must not change our mentality. We remain a humble team that knows how to defend and adapt.”

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2025