Inter back on top, Cristian Chivu’s dig at Antonio Conte

Inter back on top of the standings after the not easy victory in Bergamo against Atalanta, and immediately Cristian Chivu puts Antonio Conte in his sights. The Napoli coach had spoken of opponents better equipped than the reigning champions of Italy as far as the Scudetto fight is concerned, including the Nerazzurri. A statement to which came a dry as lapidary reply, along with praise toward the players who decided the success that brings the meneghini back to +1 from their cousins Milan and projects them to +2 right from the Campania team.

Marco Enzo Venturini

“What Conte says, I don’t care”, Chivu immediately glossed over to the microphones of ‘DAZN’. But the controversy had already been reopened by some of his earlier statements. “We are aware that we have to work. And sometimes we also have to fight with injustice and with those who believe that everything is taken for granted. However, we know that in the end it is the field that decides everything. The difficulties are there, but we react. We must always work, and we are ready to do it even more”, the Inter coach said flatly.

There is no shortage of praise for his strikers, which Chivu extended to the’Inter&#8217s entire forward department. “Guys like Pio Esposito have fitted in great – Chivu stressed -But we must not forget Bonny, he too when called upon has always given his contribution. We have four attackers of extraordinary value, today I am very happy with Thuram’s performance. Then when he couldn’t take it anymore, Pio came in and gave that great ball to Lautaro. This result counts a lot, also because Atalanta in the second half had found countermeasures to our game”.

The match in Bergamo ended 1-0 for Inter, thanks to the goal signed by Lautaro Martinez after Pio Esposito had taken advantage of a lightness of Djimsiti intercepting a ball mishandled by the Atalanta defender. After a first half dominated but with no goals to their credit, the meneghini had also attacked in the second in which, however, the hosts had grown.

This was demonstrated by the three episodes in which the Var was called upon to intervene: in the first half an offside right by Lautaro Martinez had prevented Thuram from taking the lead, but in the second half it was Atalanta that had seen two goals not validated for as many offsides, in this case by De Ketelaere and Scamacca.