Antonio Conte restrained from ‘blaming’ his Inter side after they dropped points once again in the Serie A against Roma.
Antonio Conte was still full of praise for Inter despite the fact that they dropped points for the second game in succession.
The Nerazzurri lost further ground on rivals Milan in the title race after a 2-2 draw to Roma early on Sunday afternoon.
Roma picked the early lead through Lorenzo Pellegrini in the 17th minute before two quick second-half goals from Skriniar and Hakimi put Inter 2-1 up by the 63rd minute.
Conte and company were denied the win after Gianluca Mancini popped up with a late goal four minutes from time to see both sides share the spoils.
Many were left perplexed with the Inter manager’s decision to take off goal-scorer Achraf Hakimi while they were in search of a goal to kill the game.
The decision proved to have backfired and Conte was sure to defend his reason for that action.
Speaking after the game, he said via the club’s website: “I think it was a good game, also in the first half. Don’t forget Roma have our same targets, they are just three points behind us, they sit third in the table. It was not easy to play this kind of game here.”
On the issue of Hakimi’s substitution, he added: “Vidal got injured and Gagliardini replaced him, Lautaro gave so much in 75 minutes, I wanted him to help the team in the defensive phase, Hakimi run so much, he was losing the ball possession too frequently, we’ve played three games in a week, those players have always played and we have substitutions we can use.”
“Vidal played a very good game, he had a slow start, but he increased the intensity throughout the game.”
“We have an important team that can aim for something important, I don’t see why I can’t use other players too.”
With the result, Conte now sees his Inter side fall three points behind Milan in the title race. They will face Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday before a mammoth clash against Juventus in Serie A next Sunday.
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