Chivu claims draw would have been the ‘right result’ against Liverpool

Inter head coach Cristian Chivu believes a draw would have been the “right result” after his side fell to a 1-0 defeat against Liverpool in the Champions League.

Dominik Szoboszlai scored from the penalty spot in the latter stages of proceedings at the San Siro after Alessandro Bastoni was judged to have fouled Florian Wirtz in the box.

Inter suffered their first home defeat in the Champions League since September 2022 (0-2 versus Bayern Munich), ending an 18-game unbeaten run.

Since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, half of their home defeats in the competition have been against Liverpool (2/4): also 0-2 in February 2022.

After also losing late on to Atletico Madrid last time out in the Champions League, Chivu was disappointed at how they were defeated by Arne Slot’s side.

“A draw was the right result considering how the game was going,” Chivu told Sky Sport Italia.

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“We didn’t have enough energy in the first half and struggled with their intensity, but then we found the right key to create problems for them.

“That was after being forced into making two substitutions, which meant in the second half we couldn’t make more changes and were running short on energy.

“That incident [the penalty] happened at the end of the game, it’s the second in the last two Champions League games, and we end up empty-handed again.

“However, we fought hard, tried to give our best, figured out how to break their press, and we pushed to the very end.”

Inter midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan shared the same sentiment as Chivu, while the former Manchester United and Arsenal player also believed the penalty decision was the wrong call.

“I think it was a balanced game, no one deserved to win tonight,” Mkhitaryan told Amazon Prime.

“The best result was a draw. I don’t know how they came up with a penalty that never existed but this is football. We are not happy. If you give a penalty like this, then every contact in the box is a penalty.”