Radja Nainggolan admitted that he cherished his goal that earned Cagliari a 1-1 draw at Inter after being “treated like a toy” by his parent club.
The 31-year-old was loaned to Cagliari in August by Inter and the midfielder came back to San Siro to haunt Antonio Conte’s men with a rifled long-range shot in Sunday’s Serie A clash.
Nainggolan’s 78th-minute strike went past Samir Handanovic after a deflection off Alessandro Bastoni’s heel to cancel out Lautaro Martinez’s header.
Although Nainggolan’s celebrations weren’t animated at San Siro, he took some pleasure out for denting Inter’s title aspirations.
“I have a lot of respect for the Inter fans and for my former team-mates,” he told DAZN . “But I felt treated like a toy. On one hand I’m happy for the goal, on the other I’m not as I wish my ex-team-mates the best.
“Who knows [what will happen in the future]. I’m concentrating on each game as it comes. I’m having fun, I have some excellent team-mates and we’re playing for something special.”
After a run of five successive defeats in all competitions, Cagliari have now earned back-to-back draws. They had earlier been blanked 4-1 by Inter in the Coppa Italia just 12 days ago.
Speaking about their recent change in fortunes, boss Rolando Maran said that it is due to a change in formation that they succeeded in keeping the San Siro based side quiet.
“I adjusted our tactics to 3-5-2 so we could cover more width,” he told DAZN . “We made it difficult for their strikers and blocked their passing channels.
“When we had the ball, the intention was to shake off Inter’s pressing game and make them work harder. We had to avoid being under constant pressure and it worked.”
Inter have now been held to three successive 1-1 draws in Serie A and are three points behind the league leaders Juventus who face Napoli on Sunday. Cagliari meanwhile find themselves stationed in the sixth spot with 31 points and are just better by two-goal difference from Parma who also have the same number of points but are stationed in the seventh spot due to their inferior goal difference.
