Inter blame fixture congestion for draw at Parma

Inter assistant coach Massimiliano Farris said a packed fixture schedule contributed to their 2-2 draw with Parma, as they opened the door to their Serie A title rivals.

Farris was on the touchline in place of Simone Inzaghi, with the head coach serving a ban after being shown a red card in last week’s win over Udinese.

Inter drew 1-1 with rivals AC Milan in the Coppa Italia semi-finals on Wednesday, and they go to Bayern Munich for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday.

All in all, Inter will play eight games in the month of April, and Farris believes fixture congestion contributed to Saturday’s draw, as they gave up a two-goal lead after half-time.

“We are coming off tough games against physical teams and we know what the derby demands in terms of mental energy,” Farris told reporters.

“We’ve had a lot of tough games recently and this time we didn’t have the mental and physical energy to keep our opponents at bay.”

Matteo Darmian put Inter ahead after 15 minutes and Marcus Thuram doubled their lead just before the break.

But Parma hit back in the second half with goals from substitutes Adrian Bernabe and Jacob Ondrejka, as the Nerazzurri missed the chance to pull six points clear at the summit.

League leaders Inter are on 68 points, four ahead of second-placed Napoli, who could cut the gap to one when they face Bologna on Monday.

The Opta supercomputer now gives Inter a 76% chance of retaining their title, with Napoli dethroning them in 23.5% of scenarios and Atalanta doing so in 0.5%.

“It’s happened before, it’s not surprising. It’s a question of mental and physical energy. We didn’t want to drop points, but this can happen. It’s no drama, we’ve come out of worse situations,” Farris said.

“Now we’re heading to Bayern Munich and we’ll try to give 100% for this game. The final sprint will be great and we want to get there with confidence.”