Inter Milan suffered an exit from the Europa League in the worst possible fashion after a 3-2 defeat against Hapoel Be-erSheva.
The defeat was made even more painful given that the club were leading 2-0 after just 25 minutes on the clock. The defeat means that the club have managed just one win in the last five matches, and results have not even after the arrival of Stefano Pioli. The former Lazio manager was appointed as the replacement for Frank de Boer, who was sacked after less than three months in charge of the club. The recent 3-0 win over Crotone appeared to infuse a lot of confidence into the team.
A 2-2 draw with inform AC Milan in the previous match was also a positive result. Hence, Inter fans were confident game against Hapoel Be-erSheva. The team took the lead through Icardi in the 12th minute and this lead was doubled by Brozović’s goal in the 25th minute.
However, nervousness seemed to creep into the Inter players after witnessing the opposition get one back through Lucio Maranhão in the 58th minute. GoalkeeperHandanovič received a second yellow card and the marching orders in the 68th minute after conceding a penalty.
This led to a turnaround with the home team managing two more goals in the final 20 minutes to secure a 3-2 win.”We stopped playing as a team and were presumptuous. That should never happen and we cannot afford to do that if we want to win games. We had the chance to go 3-0 up and didn’t take it. We must work hard to ensure we don’t keep giving away certain opportunities. We cannot play such a two-faced match. In the first half we did really well, badly in the second. All we needed to do was maintain that attitude,” said the Inter manager.