Frank de Boer thought Inter dominated the second half against Roma, but ultimately lost due to “easy mistakes and a stupid foul.”


Sports Livestream ⚽ JOIN NOW for FREE
Instant access to the BT Sport, Sky Sports and Eurosport


It was end to end stuff at the Stadio Olimpico, but a deflected Kostas Manolas header eventually snatched the 2-1 home victory.

“We made many mistakes, especially on Mohamed Salah in the first half, as he is very quick,” the Coach told Mediaset Premium.

“After the break we controlled the game well and due to a stupid foul the 2-1 was scored by Manolas.”

The ‘stupid foul’ in question was by Stevan Jovetic to give away the free kick, whipped in by Alessandro Florenzi.

“I am most interested by the first half, in which we gave the ball away cheaply so many times. In the second half, the only team that played well was Inter.”

Ever Banega had temporarily equalised, but Roma restored their advantage within a few minutes.

“We did very well in the second half, but also made too many easy mistakes. In my view, you can’t make those. In any case, I saw Inter doing very well in some phases and soon we will certainly win.

“In the second half we were more compact and didn’t have problems facing Roma, instead creating many of our own scoring opportunities. We paid for an error.


“Roma are a great team and when you make mistakes like that, of course it becomes difficult to win the game. During the break I told the players that only by changing their attitude could we win. And that is what we did. I saw no problems after half-time.”

Why did De Boer choose Jovetic as his final substitution rather than Gabigol?

“He is not at his best physically right now. He doesn’t have the same tempo as his teammates, whereas Jovetic trained very well during the week.”