Antonio Conte: “There was a misplaced backpass - and a foul on Hakimi by Mendy”

One of the storylines of Real Madrid’s 3 - 2 win over Inter Milan at the Alfredo di Stefano on Tuesday night was the return of Achraf Hakimi, and specifically, Achraf’s mistake to gift Real Madrid’s opening goal.

The mistake was prompted by Ferland Mendy, who put pressure on Hakimi, which in turn led to the Moroccan mishitting his pass back to goalkeeper Samir Handanović.

Nothing was really made of the play by the commentators, Inter players, or VAR. Though there is an argument that a foul was missed. Inter manager Antonio Conte said that Mendy fouled Achraf.

“There’s not a lot to say. We gifted them both goals. There was a misplaced backpass - and a foul on Hakimi by Mendy,” Conte said after the game. “Then Ramos got the better of us; we know he’s good in those situations and needed to mark him more closely. The boys need to pay more attention to the details because they make the difference at this level.”

Conte also spoke about his team’s resilience in making the initial comeback.

“I don’t know how many teams would have the character to play this sort of game in Madrid,” Conte said. “We went down by two, brought it back and could have made it 3-2. This team is taking strides to grow in all aspects. Unfortunately, the results aren’t rewarding us but these sort of performances have to give us more confidence and strength in our desire to return to being a respected team. The group is improving on the European stage but there are no shortcuts, we just need to pay more attention to the small details. We go home with a tough result but we’re convinced of what we can do. We played an excellent game against a side such as Real Madrid who had been talking of the match as though it was a final for three days.”