Inter Milan coach Luciano Spalletti was delighted with their character shown with victory over SPAL.

Mauro Icardi scored both Inter goals, with SPAL having levelled the scores through Alberto Paloschi.

“The first enemy after a Champions League win is complacency, the risk everything might seem as if it's normal," Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia.

“We had to make choices, ensuring the team didn't feel they weren't first choice players. Some choices were forced, as Danilo D'Ambrosio had a few issues and we ended the game with some tiredness.

“The players worked so hard, suffered under pressure when SPAL returned with a vengeance and at times we have difficulty playing our way out of defence, so we lost some balls that allowed SPAL to really pin us back for a while."

When Paloschi did equalise, it took only five minutes for Icardi and Inter to restore their advantage.

“When we've come up against teams that cause us problems with intensity, we have allowed them something, the way we did tonight. The good news is that when SPAL equalised, we poured forward, we reacted and went to get the three points.

“That kind of belief and reaction is something my team did not used to have, but does now and that is very, very important."