“It was a great game against an Atalanta side in top form. Obviously we had another penalty given against us…” As he spoke to Radio Rai, Claudio Ranieri focused on the key points of a match that, performance-wise, he had nothing to criticise his players for: “I’m pleased with how the team performed,” he explained. “It’s a shame they scored with their first shot on target at the end of the first half, but we went for it in the second half. Comments on the penalty? Highly debatable, given by the linesman; in fact so debatable that the referee didn’t award it initially. We have to get ourselves out of this situation where everything keeps going wrong for us – fate, individual episodes – but the team is hungry and they always go for it.”

Eight games played, five penalties against. Ranieri had this to say to Sky Sport Italia:

“We’re used to it by now; let’s hope all this finishes soon because the referee didn’t give it, it was the linesman who took that responsibility. Never mind, that’s the way it’s going this year. What do I have to say after seeing the replay? You tell me, I’m biased… Of course it will make headlines that we’ve had five penalties given against us in eight matches. And not one of them was ironcast…”

“I thought Inter were good,” the Nerazzurri coach continued. “An Inter that wanted to win against a side in a superb moment of form and doing everything right. We played well, we conceded in the 45th minute to their only shot on target, but we had lots of attempts on goal against a good team. I’m happy with the lads.”

As for the difficulty the midfielders had getting forward into the opposition’s box, Ranieri explained that

“I was the one who asked them not to push up because our opponents wanted to draw us in there and hit us on the break. The team handled the game very well, we didn’t get the full result but I can see the team is improving. I’m leaving with a point but I’m leaving happy with what my lads managed to do. They couldn’t have done more than what they did.”

The coach was asked to comment on the unfortunate spell Milito is going through (“strikers have periods when they don’t get the luck, but he’s world-class quality so he’ll get going again soon”) and on the forthcoming match against Juventus:

“I’d be lying if I said I was happy to have got just one point but we’ll face the Bianconeri in the right frame of mind. They too are in a great moment physically, it will be a good test for us.”

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