Have to be more ruthless if we want to lift trophies — Conte

Rome, June 22 (IANS): Inter Milan coach Antonio Conte believes his side needs to be more clinical in the remaining games of the Serie A.

Inter Milan defeated Sampdoria 2-1 on Sunday, courtesy Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez goals. The Nerazzurri, who picked up all three points, are currently third in the table, six points behind leaders Juventus.

“We should have finished the game off sooner,” the coach was quoted as saying in the post-match analysis as per the club’s official website. “We also created a lot against Napoli but it then finished 1-1 because of a mistake. Today, we had plenty of chances but didn’t really wrap up the win. We have to be more clinical.”

“We have twelve games left and we won’t have any room to slip up because we’re chasing,” he added.

He said if the team wants to lift trophies, they need to be more ruthless in their approach.

“We’ve worked so hard, both tactically and physically, and we want to take our chances. I hope that games like tonight’s, as well as the semi-final against Napoli, allow us to understand where we went wrong and help us to grow. If we want to aspire to lifting trophies, we need to be more ruthless in a sporting sense.”

“I’m still satisfied with the guys because they did well, but if we want to achieve something special then we need even more determination, both in possession and when our opponents have the ball.

“But I still have a lot of faith in my boys, it’s only natural that there are steps that still need to be taken. We want to cause Lazio and Juventus problems right until the end, we’re working on building a winning mentality and that’s the most important thing right now.

“It’s a shame because we deserved more in the Coppa Italia. Now we have twelve games left where we have to give everything we’ve got and get to the end of the season without any regrets,” he added. Inter will next take on Sassuolo on Wednesday.