The Denmark midfielder had only just arrived from Spurs but was quickly thrown into the action by his new club
Antonio Conte was reluctant to introduce Christian Eriksen for his Inter debut so soon, only doing so due to a lack of midfield options in the 2-1 win over Fiorentina.
Eriksen completed a move from Tottenham to Inter on Tuesday, becoming the Serie A club’s third addition of the January window after Ashley Young and Victor Moses.
He was brought on as a substitute with 24 minutes remaining in Wednesday’s Coppa Italia quarter-final, with Nicolo Barella scoring what proved to be a stunning winner 42 seconds later.
The playmaker, who replaced Alexis Sanchez from the bench, thought he had capped his debut with an assist when he fed Lautaro Martinez, only for the offside flag to rule out Inter’s third goal.
However, Conte revealed he did not plan on utilising his latest signing so soon after Eriksen’s arrival at San Siro.
“We did not intend to use Eriksen so soon, as he only started training with us yesterday, but Matias Vecino and Barella were the only available midfielders,” Conte told Rai Sport.
“Eriksen has character and raises the quality level of the squad. I hope to get more players back, because we really are limited in the middle.
“We tried a system with a trequartista today to deal with the absence of Stefano Sensi and Marcelo Brozovic. Eriksen can play in a few different roles, and we’ll see – it could be an option, but we need to work on it a lot more.
“We were rather forced into using the three strikers together because I found out about the problems in midfield.”
Inter had the better of proceedings for large swathes of Wednesday’s meeting at San Siro, but Martin Caceres had cancelled out Antonio Candreva’s opener prior to Barella’s wonderful half-volley.
“I tried and it went right into the far bottom corner. I must learn to score easier goals,” joked Italy international Barella to Rai Sport.
“We deserved this victory. We must give more in Serie A, but we’ve also been a little unlucky in some circumstances. There’s time, it’s a long campaign.”
Barella seems set to compete with Eriksen for a starting spot in Inter’s midfield, but the 22-year-old is relishing the opportunity to play alongside the former Spurs man.
“My adventure at Inter is going very well, everyone has faith in me and we are doing something important,” Barella added.
“Eriksen is world class and will raise the quality level of the whole squad. I hope he can soon make San Siro burst with joy.”
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