Football
ESPN staff 7y

Inter Milan manager Stafano Pioli: 'We can do important things'

Inter Milan manager Stefano Pioli says his side displayed some encouraging signs in their 4-2 defeat of Fiorentina on Monday night -- his first win while in charge of the San Siro club.

Goals from Marcelo Brozovic, Antonio Candreva and Mauro Icardi gave Inter a 3-0 lead within 20 minutes. However strikes from Nikola Kalinic and Josip Ilicic made things interesting before Icardi collected his second in second-half stoppage time.

And Pioli liked what he saw from his group.

"We have shown that we can do important things,'' Pioli said. "When we slow down we get in difficulty ... I saw a lot of positive things, and so many other things that we need to work on.

"I think the squad has the qualities to play a certain type of football, we didn't manage the ball well in the second half. We want to control matches. The idea is to win them. Now we have to immediately think about the next match against Napoli.''

Captain Icardi was not satisfied with the second-half swoon, and warned his teammates against letting up in such moments.

"It was a game we needed to perform in, and we did, although we dropped off a bit in the second half in the same way as we did in Israel," he told Sky Sport Italia after the match.

"Clearly that's something we need to work on. I think our fitness levels aren't the issue. I don't know if it's a fear of winning, either, but we need to control the situation better when we take the lead. This keeps happening."

The Argentine found positives in the performance -- which was taken in by club's China-based owners -- and said he hoped they'll head home having liked what they saw on the night. 

"They came to wish us the best and I think they'll go back to China happy," Icardi said.

"I don't know what has been going wrong this season. I've said since the summer that, individually, we have some of the best players in Serie A, but we need everyone to work as a team."

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