Stramaccioni: Inter "cursed"

Head coach Andrea Stramaccioni described Inter Milan's season as "cursed" after watching his side lose 2-0 to Cagliari.

The Italian Football Federation have already asked Inter to explain comments made in the wake of last week's 4-3 defeat to Atalanta, with the club claiming match officials have acted "without good faith" towards the Nerazzurri on a regular basis.

The accusations started when referee Andrea Gervasoni awarded Atalanta's German Denis a penalty for a marginal handball and today Stramaccioni railed against Domenico Celi for handing Cagliari a spot-kick following minimal contact between Matias Silvestre and Mauricio Pinilla.

The Chilean striker made no mistake from the penalty spot before compounding Inter's misery with a late second at the Stadio Nereo Rocco.

Stramaccioni told inter.it: "I must still congratulate my team despite the negative result. What's going on is unbelievable. This season is cursed, but we were doing well until the penalty."

Inter's season has also been marred by a perpetual injury crisis, with midfielder Walter Gargano and defender Yuto Nagatomo both suffering knocks today to leave Stramaccioni with even fewer options.

"We had a chance with (Tommaso) Rocchi, then we picked up yet another injury, this time to Gargano," he added.

"Then they were awarded a penalty, which looked dubious to us, before we lost (Yuto) Nagatomo to injury."

Inter's hopes of reaching the Champions League places now look bleak but May's Coppa Italia final is within reach should Stramaccioni's men overcome Roma's 2-1 lead in Wednesday night's semi-final second leg.

He added: "Now we have a very important match. We've lost another two players but we'll try to go into the Roma game in the best way possible.

"We're down to 14 players and (Alvaro) Pereira and (Fredy) Guarin are suspended against Roma but we'll see what we can do.

"Any side that loses two forwards to injury and other big players would struggle to do well."

Cagliari coach Diego Lopez commended his players for shrugging off the upheaval of moving over 600 miles north east to Trieste by climbing into the top half of the table.

The Rossoblu decided to leave the doomed Stadio Is Arenas to close out their season at the Stadio Nereo Rocco, but the relocation did little to unsettle the Sardinians, who are now 10th.

He told cagliaricalcio.net: "It's all down to the boys, they are having an extraordinary season despite the really difficult situation off the pitch.

"We have a great team that has played together for many years and the squad is excellent. We can count on five quality strikers and whoever comes in does well.

"Today, Pinilla came in and scored the decisive goals."