Inter's perseverance pleases Stramaccioni

After seeing his team register a late goal to defeat FK Partizan in UEFA Europa League Group H, FC Internazionale Milano coach Andrea Stramaccioni was delighted. He was also full of praise for Inter's Serbian opponents, who hit a post in the first half through Lazar Marković. The 18-year-old had a further chance to score just before Rodrigo Palacio's winner two minutes from time, leaving the Partizan players with mixed emotions. Midfielder Medo took the positives, believing the experience will help the development of his young side.

Andrea Stramaccioni, Inter coach
We suffered against a side who caused us numerous problems, especially in the first half. I am happy because Inter had the strength to reshuffle during the break and play the second half with a totally different spirit. Considering the way we played in the second half, I think we deserved the victory but I must congratulate Partizan for their performance.

Serbian teams always have promising players in their ranks. Tonight they showed they have a few players with great quality and with a bright future ahead. However, I am mostly happy for the way we kept on trying to win in the second half, we proved we really want to do well in this competition. We have always given our best in the Europa League and you can see that on the pitch. We have to continue like this. This victory is a reward for my players and for the way they searched for the victory.

Javier Zanetti, Inter defender
It was a difficult game but a very important win. Three points tonight sent a message to our opponents in this group and now we can prepare in the best possible way for our league games. When a team risk everything to try to win a game like we did in the second half, it is normal to concede some chances to the opponents, but Samir [Handanovič] made a great save late on. It was our first home win in the competition, but this does not mean too much. What counts the most is that our team is continuing to grow.

Stefan Šćepović, Partizan forward
We came here with the objective of playing a good game. Obviously we are a bit disappointed with the result but I think that after this game we have all gained something, at least in terms of experience. We started the group with a draw, then we lost against Rubin Kazan and now another defeat, but I think we played well tonight and it was a great experience. Marković had a great game tonight. He just lacked a bit of luck, but we can hope it will be different in Belgrade.

Medo, Partizan midfielder
We are very disappointed because we had the chance to finish the game before they did. I am happy because we played very well but we were unfortunate at the end. In general it was a very good experience because we are a very young team. Most of our boys are 19 or 20. We just missed a bit of experience at this level tonight. I think we have only one player in the team with lots of experience, but these kind of games are going to be good for a team like ours. Now we will just have to keep on playing as we did today and see what happens at the end of the end of the competition.