Lille showed Inter too much respect, says Garcia

Rudi Garcia, Lille coach
We were too respectful in the first half and Inter managed to break the deadlock. Unfortunately, my team were not rewarded for their hard work in the second half as Inter defended well. Our stats are good but we were not clinicial enough. We played a coherent team who were united and quite experienced. We lost to a high-level side with very good players, even if they are struggling in the league. They do well in Europe, won in Moscow and we knew it would be a tough game. However, a draw would have been fair. Now we are bottom of the section but have nothing to lose in Milan or Moscow.

Claudio Ranieri, Inter coach
There is still a long way to go for us to find our best form, but my players are working hard and it's clear they want to turn the corner. These kind of results are good for the players' confidence and we have to continue on this path. I played [Thiago] Motta in front of our defence because he is not very fast with his feet but he is fast with his mind. He is very important, especially because he dictates the tempo of our game. He is a very intelligent player and his return is very important for us.

In the second half I changed from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 because we were suffering too much in midfield with only three men. When we find our form we will be able to play an entire game with three midfielders. I asked my players not to sit back too much in the second half but, considering our current situation, I'm very satisfied with the performance. We had a few players returning from injury and Lille were on top form so I could not ask for much more than this.