Inter Were Better, Admits Ranieri

Inter Were Better, Admits Ranieri

Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri admits Inter had the better chances in tonight's Derby d'Italia, which was won 1-0 by to the Nerazzurri.

Following tonight's 1-0 defeat to Inter, Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri admitted his side did not deserve to win as they did not express their full potential.

"This was not Juventus," he moaned. "Of course Inter deserve a lot of credit for pressing us all over the pitch, but we made mistakes and gave the ball away too easily.

"Inter could have done better on a number of counterattacks, but we conceded the only goal on the weakest chance of all. I think [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic wanted to shoot, not pass the ball to [match-winner Sulley] Muntari.

"I must admit that Inter played better and deserved the victory. We were hoping to get back on top of the table, but it wasn't to be.

"We played below our possibilities tonight and if we had taken home a point, which would certainly have been possible, Inter would've had more to complain about."

Just a couple of minutes in, Portuguese midfielder Tiago was forced to limp off with an injury, and was replaced by Claudio Marchisio.

"Tiago suffered this sprain, we'll keep an eye on the situation. Recently he had been doing very well, setting the tempo in midfield like Cristiano Zanetti did last year," Ranieri commented on that.

"It's hard to say what we could have done with more players available, because we have a very clear and well defined system of play, but we could not execute things well today."

On the difference between Serie A and the Champions League, in which Juve are already qualified to the last 16 stage, he said: "The Champions League is always a bit of a lotter, while Serie A requires consistency.

"We wanted to beat Inter tonight to stay near the top, but we didn't do it. Our season continues. The objective is to improve on last year's third place finish."

Tonight's defeat saw Juve drop six points behind Inter, who guaranteed their permanence on top of the table with these three points.

Danilo Pochini