CorSport - Inter, Chivu’s dressing-down of the squad: the walls of the Olimpico shook at half-time

Inter's poor first half against Roma forced the Romanian manager into a dressing-down in the bowels of the Olimpico.

Inter left the Stadio Olimpico in Rome with a comeback 2-2 draw against Gian Piero Gasperini's side, a result that gave Inter fans reason to smile, above all because of how the game had been unfolding.

By the end of the first half, Inter were two goals down yet again this season after another poor start to the campaign, with Manu Kone scoring both. At half-time came the jolt and, after the match, Cristian Chivu did not want to reveal what he had said to the team

But Corriere dello Sport revealed that the tone of the speech given by the Romanian coach was anything but calm.

“He stays with us”

The Inter manager would not be drawn and, speaking to the press straight after the match, made it clear he was unhappy with the attitude his players showed at the start of the game. He told them as much in the dressing room at half-time:

"I’ll start with the second half, what I had to say about the first I said at half-time and it stays between me and them: that is the absolute truth and it is what I think. I am convinced they know it too. In the second half, for attitude, grit, quality and personality, we played a great game"

The walls shook

The issues at the heart of the discussion are clear enough. For now, though, how it unfolded remains unclear, but according to Corriere dello Sport, tempers quite literally flared.

"It was not a calm half-time and the walls of the Olimpico shook. Chivu found the right way to make his players understand that they were too ugly on the pitch to be real"