Stramaccioni: Away goal will be crucial

24 ianuarie 2013 03:30

Inter Milan coach Andrea Stramaccioni feels his side's goal in their 2-1 defeat at Roma in the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg could prove vital.

Roma had taken a 2-0 lead before Rodrigo Palacio's strike gave Inter hope.

Stramaccioni believes his side can still reach the Coppa Italia final, and drew parallels between Wednesday's match and the 1-1 draw between the two sides in Serie A on Sunday.

"It was very similar to Sunday's match," Stramaccioni said.

"Roma opened the match strongly, that's their characteristic and they've already proved it many times this season, but I think that Inter played a better second half.

"We had better chances to score than Roma.

"We respect the result though, my compliments to our opponent for the victory, we will wait for them in San Siro on the 17th (of April), we will fight for the final until the very last minute.

"Having scored a goal is important, we would have liked to score another one, but Roma's defence put in a good performance tonight and we were a bit imprecise too.

"That's fine, I think that the 2-1 is a result that leaves Inter the chances to fight for the final in San Siro."

Stramaccioni paid tribute to Roma, and rates his team's chances of progressing to the decider at 50-50.

"I always respect any result gained on the pitch, Roma won tonight and I pay my compliments to them because they deserved to win, but it's objective that we played an excellent second half and were more than once very close to the equaliser," he said.

"I have great confidence in my guys and I know that we can fight for the victory in San Siro until the end and our supporters will be there for us, so I think we have a 50 percent chance to make it to the final."