Denzel Dumfries was among the protagonists in Inter’s hard-fought 1-0 Champions League victory against Young Boys, secured by Thuram’s last-minute goal. The match was played on a challenging synthetic pitch, which also caused a muscular problem for Carlos Augusto. Despite Inzaghi’s extensive rotation that somewhat unsettled the team, the Dutch wingback was satisfied with the performance and spoke to the media to defend Taremi and Arnautovic from criticism, particularly regarding the latter’s missed penalty.
Dumfries acknowledged the difficulty of the match, stating, “It wasn’t an easy game. To be honest, it was really tough to play on this field. I’ve played many times on surfaces like this, but if you don’t do it regularly, it’s hard to get used to the movements and everything else. And then if you do it again after a long time… No, it’s not easy.”
Despite the challenges, Dumfries believed the victory was deserved: “We fought until the last breath, and all in all, I think we deserved the win. However, I want to emphasize one thing: I have a lot of respect for Young Boys, who gave us a tough time.”
When questioned about Inter’s perceived dependency on the “ThuLa” partnership (Thuram and Lautaro), Dumfries strongly disagreed: “I don’t agree. In my view, Arnautovic and Mehdi (Taremi) did very well, especially in terms of passing and pressing! It’s not easy for them because they don’t have the match rhythm you can only get by playing a lot. But what a great match from both of them! That said, Inter won on merit.”
