MILAN - "I think more than us wasting the first half it was about that brilliant goal by Quagliarella. We still had two decent chances in the first period though, with Cassano and Palacio. We were definitely better after the restart. Inter put on a brave performance and played an open game. We're clearly playing at a higher intensity." That was Andrea Stramaccioni giving his post-match thoughts after the game against Juventus.
"We'll keep aiming for our targets despite the defeat. We need points but the performance was reassuring because we played very well against a a great team. We're obviously disappointed because we went close to scoring several times. We didn't deserve to lose, we deserved to draw. We're still not getting much luck in certain situations and Juventus are better than us. Chiellini's foul on Cassano? I'm not going to talk about refereeing decisions," the coach sighed.
Pressed further on the refereeing in later interviews, Stramaccioni added: "What can I say? I don't really get it, I didn't see it very well from the bench. What did Valeri say? I think that if one of the match officials believed it wasn't a penalty then Cassano should have been booked for simulation. Handanovic's challenge on Vidal was similar? Vidal's knee went towards the keeper. They are different situations. The keeper dives into space. I asked the fourth man from the dugout. The rules are clear: either it's a penalty or it's a free kick. I don't think there's any doubt if you look at the replay, but that's not my job. Decisions went against us in the reverse fixture? Juventus are better than us but they weren't today because Inter had more chances so with a bit more luck we might have been commenting on a different result."
Stramaccioni was also asked about specific players, such as why he hadn't picked Guarin in the starting line-up. "You all know how things went. He hadn't completed a single training session with the rest of the team since returning. That's all there was to it. Kovacic is getting better with every game. He just needs to keep going as he is. Zanetti? He always leads by example. Cambiasso committed a bad foul at the end but he immediately went into the Juve dressing room to apologise. That can happen in certain games. He's a great professional, exemplary, and he said sorry immediately."
Finally, on the race for third place: "Is it beyond us now? Of course it's not. We played an open game today. We're playing better, we have a match in Genoa now and we have to win it."
