Conte: 'Evenly-balanced encounter'

By Football Italia staff

Antonio Conte saw “a very balanced encounter, although we should not be comparing ourselves to Juventus right now. There are no short-cuts” for a young Inter.

The Nerazzurri had a perfect start to the Serie A season with six consecutive victories, but they were beaten 2-1 at home by Maurizio Sarri’s Juve and therefore also lose the top of the table.

“I think we above all paid for Sensi’s injury the moment he went off, as we rather lost our way. We didn’t start the second half well, but then it was more balanced again and either team could score,” Conte told Sky Sport Italia.

“Juventus got the goal, they certainly showed all their heavy artillery in attack, all their experience in how to control a game like this. I cannot complain to the lads, as they gave their all, but as I’ve always said, we have a long road ahead of us to reach their level in terms of experience and game management.

“We need to improve and that was inevitable, as we are at the start of this journey. I did see the statistics and it was a very balanced encounter, they could’ve scored and so could we. We both had chances, but experience and the quality of a big club made the difference.

“We tip our hat to them, we’ll roll our sleeves up and keep working.”

Conte was asked if this was a particularly painful loss considering it was his first against Juve since leaving the club.

“It’s an important game against a very strong team. I had always lost against Juventus, with Arezzo and Atalanta. I am disappointed at the defeat, not because it was Juventus. I tip my hat to them.”

This was the second consecutive defeat after a midweek 2-1 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League and there were similarities, as again Inter fell away considerably in the second half.

“We certainly could’ve done better on all the goals we conceded, but as I said, this is a growth process with some lads who don’t have much experience at this level. They’re working hard, but we need time to go through it and there are no short-cuts.

“We should not be comparing ourselves to Juventus right now, as they are on another level in every sense of the term. We are working to diminish the gap, we did well to win the previous six games, but let’s not forget we were always at 200km/h.

“We know that if we are to win a match, we have to go at 200. There is no cruise speed or 80km where we can still get the result.

“We could’ve done better with the final ball, but the team did produce chances. I looked at the statistics, which suggested a very evenly-balanced encounter, despite the fact that on paper these two teams are not in any way balanced.”

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