Roberto Mancini believes that playing behind closed doors affected his Internazionale team as they struggled to overcome Rangers on Wednesday night.

Inter are serving a six-game ban after the crowd disturbances in last year’s Champions League quarter-final with neighbours Milan.

“At the beginning of the match we struggled and, as well as the missed penalty (by Julio Cruz), we also failed to convert two or three other scoring opportunities,” he stated.

“We must be more determined and finish them, but the fact we played in an empty stadium also gave us a few problems.”

Inter now face a top-of-the-table clash with Juventus in Serie A this weekend.

“Juve did the same as us: they scored, then they missed a few chances,” he added.

“I think their match and our one was similar, the only difference is that they will have an extra day to recover ahead of our clash on Sunday.

“I think Sunday’s match will be important: A win for us would give us a lot of things and it would change a lot for us too.

“But I don’t think the match with Juve will be decisive for the league because there are many matches to be played yet.”