Roberto Mancini had to suffer a testing last 20 minutes before Inter Milan emerged with full points from the visit to second bottom Cagliari.
Three nights before facing Celtic in the Europa League Mancini’s men recorded their third Serie A win in a row lifting them into joint sixth place alongside Sampdoria and Genoa who play tonight.
Inter had the best of the first half but had to wait until after the break to take the lead with goals from Mateo Kovacic and Mauro Icardi.
That should have killed Cagliari off but in the 74th minute a shot from Samuele Longo crashed off goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo and into the net.
Inter survived through four minutes of stoppage time but the match took it’s toll on Mancini’s nerves.
“If we don’t make things difficult for ourselves, then we wouldn’t be Inter!” the Inter boss admitted.
“We had the chance to score twice in the first half and failed. We went in front, then Longo came on and did very well.
“In the 10 minutes after that goal, anything could’ve happened. It was wide open and after 65 minutes we should’ve been well in control.
“When 2-0 up it’s possible the team relaxed a little, especially with three intense games per week and not much squad rotation.
“Up until 2-0 we controlled possession perfectly, but then Cagliari pressed and we got too stretched out, the defence was too deep and that left gaps between the lines.
On loan Arsenal striker Lukas Podolski was in the starting line up but isn’t available to face Celtic.
