Internazionale coach Roberto Mancini was pleased with his side’s performance following their 3-1 win at Anderlecht.
“This was a very positive result for us,” said Mancini.
“The only pity was that we didn’t score a second goal in the first half because then we could have controlled the game from then on.”
‘Super-sub’ Obafemi Martins was preferred up front to Christian Vieri and his partnership with Adriano worked to great effect with both making the score sheet. Martins opened the scoring in the 9th minute with his Brazilian strike partner notching Inter’s second just after the interval.
“The Adriano – Martins combination worked very well up front and that bodes well for the future.” Said Mancini.
Dejan Stankovic put the game beyond doubt in the 55th minute as Inter created more opportunities and could well have extended their lead.
Anderlecht coach Hugo Broos was disappointed with the result.
“We were outclassed by Inter throughout the whole game tonight. I cannot blame my players for their effort because they were doing their best but we just have to confess that they were better than us,” said Broos.
“Inter have huge possibilities and that was demonstrated by the fact that they could leave four players, players such as Edgar Davids and Alvaro Recoba out of their team.”
Neither Vieri nor Veron started the match for the Nerazuri, indicating great strength in depth in Mancini’s team which now leads a competitive Group G, three points ahead of Bremen and Valencia.
The only blot on an otherwise perfect night in Europe was the extra time goal scored by Baseggio.
“I am still a bit angry with the final goal which we conceded as we should not have allowed them to score. It shows that we lost concentration and that should not happen in a game like this,” grumbled Mancini.
