Luciano Spalletti Says 'Everything Is OK' After Mauro Icardi Return in 4-0 Win

Luciano Spalletti has said he was the one who had to concede ground in the stand-off between Inter Milan and Mauro Icardi after the Argentinian scored in his return to the side against Genoa on Wednesday. 

Before Wednesday, when Inter thrashed Genoa 4-0 away from home, Icardi had not played since February 9:

In the interim he was stripped of the captaincy amid stalled contract negotiations and was heavily linked with a departure from the San Siro, most notably to Real Madrid. 

The striker's exile ended against Genoa as he played 80 minutes in Serie A, scoring Inter's second from the penalty spot.

Spalletti said afterwards that the situation had reached a point where someone had to give in, and he duly did, per Goal:

"Someone had to take a step back towards Inter. I had to be the first and I did it. I expected everyone to do the same. It was hard to have it happen, but with today's victory everything is OK. The team was very professional and smart. [Icardi] took a risk when it came to the goal because it wasn't easy to take a penalty for a player who's gone through all this recently. He showed personality. The team allowed him to take it and everything was fine."

Roberto Gagliardini scored either side of Icardi's 40th-minute penalty and Ivan Perisic's goal, which was assisted by the returning forward, to make for an easy night for Inter:

They now sit comfortably in third, four points ahead of fourth-placed AC Milan.

Atalanta are in fifth, just outside the UEFA Champions League spots and eight points back from Inter.

That gap could be cut to five, though, if Atalanta win at home to Bologna on Thursday before they face the Nerazzurri in Milan on Sunday.

That clash is crucial for Inter in their bid to return to the Champions League for the second season running.

A victory over Atalanta would be a huge step towards securing a top-four finish, but a defeat would drag Inter back into a dogfight.

The return of Icardi could be crucial in the run in. Inter fared passably without him as they won three, lost two and drew once in Serie A.

However, he has been their top scorer for each of the last four campaigns and is arguably the club's most important player.

Per DAZN (h/t Sacha Pisani of Goal), Radja Nainggolan said after Icardi's return against Genoa that "we all need to row in the same direction towards the same objective."

That objective is securing Champions League football, and Icardi will help with that.