Dimarco and Mkhitaryan on Inter ‘family’ atmosphere and awards
Federico Dimarco and Henrikh Mkhitaryan joke about the Inter wing-back’s latest Man of the Match award, but are ‘a family’ to protect Alessandro Bastoni from jeering.
It looked on paper like a more comfortable victory than it really was, because they had to wait until the 75th minute to break Lecce down.
Dimarco had the ball in the net earlier, but it was disallowed because Marcus Thuram’s shoulder was offside in the build-up.
The wing-back was involved in both goals anyway, his corner flicked on for the Henrikh Mkhitaryan half-volley, then a pure assist for the Manuel Akanji header again from the flag.
Dimarco and Mkhitaryan joke about Inter award
“It was a real sigh of relief to get the breakthrough, as we knew it was a difficult game, as Lecce are well-organised. After our long journey to Bodo, we left on Thursday evening, then had to set off again yesterday to travel here, it wasn’t easy,” Dimarco told DAZN Italia.
“This win gave a sense of consistency after beating Juventus, and that is what we needed to keep pushing at the top of the table.”
It means Dimarco makes history as the first Serie A defender to provide assists in five consecutive appearances since 2006-07, and receives another MVP trophy.
“I thought Mkhitaryan deserved the Man of the Match award really, he came on so well. I leave the awards to my kids, they like arranging them, but what really matters for me is the team.”
The Italian now has 14 assists in Serie A this season, comfortably more than any other player.
Standing next to him, Mkhitaryan joked that Dimarco “needs to get a new house to store all these awards.”
“It is usually Bastoni in that position, but seeing as he just ran and made a big challenge, he didn’t have the energy to go there, so I did it instead,” revealed Mkhitaryan.
Following a week of controversy over his simulation to get Juventus defender Pierre Kalulu sent off, Bastoni was jeered loudly by Lecce fans every time he touched the ball this evening. How did his Inter teammates help him deal with that?
“It’s in the past now, we have to focus on the present. Bastoni and everyone else has already talked about it too much, we just focus on our work,” insisted Dimarco.
Mkhitaryan also had words of advice for the Italy international.
“We are a family, we support each other through thick and thin, but that is in the past now and we move on.”