De Vrij: ‘Inter defend as a team to neutralise Haaland’ | OneFootball

Stefan de Vrij said Inter must ‘defend as a team’ to neutralise Manchester City star Erling Haaland in the Champions League and does not expect the same problems seen with Monza.

The Nerazzurri were hoping to get three points under their belts at the U-Power Stadium to kick-start an extremely tough week in their fixture list.

Instead, they went behind to a Dany Mota Carvalho towering header and needed the late Denzel Dumfries tap-in to rescue a 1-1 draw.

“You have to prepare one game at a time and it was not an easy test,” assured De Vrij on DAZN.

“Mota jumped very well and the cross was perfect.”

Manchester City and Milan a different test for De Vrij

Inter struggled to break down a very defensive Monza side that sat deep, but will not have those kinds of issues in their next two fixtures.

They travel to face Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday, then go head-to-head with city rivals Milan in the Derby della Madonnina next Sunday in Serie A.

“There are no alarm bells, we just have to learn from the mistakes that we made today. At times we were too slow moving the ball around and could’ve been sharper in the final pass. If you break the deadlock against these teams, it all gets easier, but we struggled to find that opening.”

De Vrij was asked how he and his teammates hope to stop Haaland, who has scored nine goals in four games this term.

“You have to work as a team to limit him, but also remember that Manchester City is not just Haaland. He is in good shape and scored a lot this season, but we have to defend as a team.”