Inter at start of journey after pride in Champions League final defeat

A s Inter waited to collect their Champions League runners-up medals at the Atatürk Stadium on Saturday night, André Onana hurled down his gloves and grabbed Lautaro Martínez by the face. It was not immediately clear if the goalkeeper was consoling his teammate or chastising him, the forceful body language reflecting all at once Inter’s despair at chances missed against Manchester City and their pride for having earned them.

“I told him football is like this, it’s hard and unfair,” said Onana. “But we played a great game, and we will be back. It’s hard to swallow, but working like this we will get back to another final.”

All around them, teammates were struggling to process the emotions. Inter played the game they had intended to, standing toe-to-toe with a City side who entered as heavy favourites, ceding possession but not position as they pressed and disrupted up the pitch. They carved out the better chances as well.

“The ball just wouldn’t go in,” lamented Federico Dimarco, who saw one header come back off the crossbar and another off the shin of his teammate Romelu Lukaku. A point-blank effort from the Belgian was kept out by Ederson’s knee. The penultimate touch of the game belonged to the City goalkeeper, making a brilliant save to deny Robin Gosens at a corner.

Winning finals requires good fortune and better timing to combine with talent and hard work. Pep Guardiola was not bluffing when he told the Italian broadcaster Mediaset that the truest achievement was not to win this competition but to make a habit of “always being there at the end”.

Inter want to believe this is only a starting point. The midfielder Nicolò Barella said earlier in the week that the path to Istanbul begun with defeat to Sevilla in the