Inter, Martinez: "I will carry the incident with me forever, it is not forgotten. We are conceding too many goals, but it is not always the goalkeeper's fault. I live with mistakes calmly"

This is by far the biggest spell of Josep Martinez 's career. Now Inter 's first-choice keeper and called up by Spain, he has plenty riding on what comes next. Speaking to the Gazzetta dello Sport from the Roja camp, he looked back on the start of the season and explained where and how he can improve, Inter's ambition and how he deals with mistakes.

Too many goals conceded

"We are doing well, but it is important to underline the things we are not doing at our best, I am thinking above all of the defensive phase: we are conceding too many goals.

It is easy to look at the goalkeeper, but we are a team and from first to last we all have to raise our level, and I believe we will do it because if we have one characteristic, it is that we are always hungry. We always want to win, to try to improve, to add something in every match so as to reach our peak in the decisive moments of the season."

2-0 down too many times

"Clearly, we need to look at the first halves again. We switched off in certain situations and we cannot afford that, but I am calm because the team are aware of the problem and that is where we will focus our attention.

It is a shame about the defeat here in Madrid. We came close to getting a result against a team of great quality. We are strong and we can compete with anyone, but to do that we must avoid giving our rivals an advantage because sometimes it goes for you and other times it does not"

“I live with mistakes calmly”

"Mistakes? I take everything in my stride, for better or worse. Anyone can make a mistake, the important thing is to analyse it so as to avoid repeating it, there is no other way. You must not point the finger at an individual when they make a mistake, because it is part of football.

Without mistakes, I'm not saying there would be no goals, but there would be far fewer. It happened to me, it can happen to someone else. The important thing in a team like Inter is to stay united and, if someone is having a bad day, try to help them. I repeat, naturally"

"We can compete with anyone"

"Are we off again? I feel good, and not just physically: we're ready for everything that's coming, we're ambitious and we're setting ourselves no limits. We'll compete with anyone, in Italy and in Europe"

The incident

"It's something you never forget. I know I'll carry it with me forever. I think about it and I try not to do so too much because it's something that can drain your energy. It was a tragedy and the only way to get over it is to look ahead. The difficult period is behind me and the fact I'm here proves it.

I'm at one of the best teams in Europe and in the strongest national team in the world. I look to the future with optimism, positivity and tremendous hunger. I want to keep winning matches and trophies with Inter, so that they call me up here again"