Mancini defends Inter after Tottenham thrashing

Roberto Mancini has defended his Inter side after their 6-1 thrashing against Premier League side Tottenham in their latest friendly.

A Harry Kane penalty and goal from Erik Lamela put Spurs 2-1 up at half-time after Ivan Perisic's tidy finish. But it was one-way traffic in the second half as Tottenham netted four unanswered goals from Dele Alli, Kane, Vincent Janssen and Shayon Harrison.

Mancini, though, opted to pick the positives from Inter's performance, particularly the first-half display. 

"Nobody likes to lose, especially 6-1, but aside from the result the first half was good," Mancini said.

"From the 50th minute onwards we made too many mistakes and the result shows that.

"Losing is never nice, but I prefer to play against strong teams because it's better to face sides of a certain level."

The loss was Inter's fourth out of seven pre-season games, in which they have only won once.

But despite Inter's underwhelming run of friendlies, former Manchester City manager Mancini insists Inter are set to improve on their fourth-placed Serie A finish last season.

"This season we want to improve on fourth place and we have the chance to do that. We have to work hard in order to be in the right shape and do well," he said.