Football
Paul Murphy 7y

Inter Milan coach Luciano Spalletti: 'Our intention is to keep Ivan Perisic'

SINGAPORE -- Inter Milan boss Luciano Spalletti says that he wants Manchester United target Ivan Perisic to stay at the club, but admits that he "can't say for sure" what will happen.

Perisic starred as Inter beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the International Champions Cup in Singapore on Thursday, and Spalletti reiterated his desire to hold onto the 28-year-old.

Sources told ESPN FC earlier this month that United remain confident of landing Perisic this summer, though Spalletti said this week that Inter have yet to receive a suitable offer for the Croatia international.

And Spalletti said on Thursday: "Our intention is to keep Perisic if possible. I have known him for a long time and you don't need me to tell you that he's a world-class player.

"Whether he played well tonight or not isn't important. We want to keep him, but a lot of considerations have to be made. I can't say for sure if he is going to stay or not.

Spalletti was delighted with Inter's performance against Bundesliga champions Bayern as they stifled the attacking threat offered by players such as James Rodriguez and Robert Lewandowski.

"Overall, we played a very good game and I am very proud of my team," Spalletti said. "We played very well both in defence and attack. If I have to be very picky, I would say that in the second half we could have been a little bit more aggressive.

"These are the types of challenges that we want to have. We want to play teams at this level so that we can improve all the time."

The next test comes from Chelsea, who Inter face in their final International Champions Cup match in Singapore on Saturday.

Bayern manager Carlo Ancelotti was unperturbed by his side's latest defeat to Italian opposition, having seen them lose 4-0 to AC Milan in China on Saturday.

"The result is the less important thing," Ancelotti said. "We have to consider the performance. Against AC Milan, the performance was not good, but today it was good.

"We made mistakes and conceded easy goals but we had good control of the game. You have to consider that we played two days ago against Chelsea and that I didn't want to give too many minutes to the players who played against Chelsea. I used a lot of young players from the academy and, honestly, they did really well."

Ancelotti played down concerns over the fitness of winger Franck Ribery, who came off injured after 30 minutes following an excellent performance against Chelsea and a lively start to this match.

"Ribery had a little problem on his ankle, a cut," Ancelotti said. "He needed one stitch, but I think in two to three days, he will be fit. It's not a big problem."

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