Antonio Conte: Christian Eriksen's Inter Milan Debut Came Earlier Than Planned

Antonio Conte has said he did not intend for Christian Eriksen to make his Inter Milan debut so soon after the midfielder played 24 minutes in Wednesday's 2-1 Coppa Italia quarter-final win against Fiorentina.

Eriksen only completed his £17 million move from Tottenham Hotspur to the San Siro on Tuesday, signing a contract until 2024. In his first outing for Inter, he replaced Alexis Sanchez in the 66th minute to a rapturous reception from the home crowd.

Conte said after Inter's victory that he had not wanted to put Eriksen into action so quickly, but his hand was forced by a lack of midfielders, per Rai Sport (h/t Goal's Patric Ridge): 

"We did not intend to use Eriksen so soon, as he only started training with us yesterday, but Matias Vecino and [Nicolo] Barella were the only available midfielders. 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."

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Moments after Eriksen's introduction, Barella scored what proved to be the winner.

Martin Caceres had cancelled out Antonio Candreva's first-half goal on the hour.

Eight minutes from time, Eriksen appeared to have registered his first assist for the club when he fed Lautaro Martinez beyond the defence and the Argentinian converted through goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano's legs. But the goal was ruled out for offside.

Inter's victory put them through to the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, where they will take on Napoli in a two-legged tie. The other semi-final sees AC Milan take on Juventus.

Inter closed to within three points of the Old Lady at the top of Serie A when they drew 1-1 with Cagliari in their most recent league game.

They are back in action away to Udinese on Sunday after Juve host Fiorentina in Turin.