Cristian Chivu praised Inter for taking their match against Slavia Praha seriously after they ran out 3-0 winners in the Champions League at San Siro.

Lautaro Martinez scored a brace, netting in each half on either side of Denzel Dumfries’ goal to maintain Inter’s perfect start to their European campaign.

The Nerazzurri are now unbeaten across their six Champions League games against sides from Czechia (W5 D1), only ever facing sides from the Netherlands (13) and Ukraine (eight) more often in the competition without losing.

Inter were in control throughout, but particularly showed their strength in the first half, attempting 13 shots in total, their most in the opening 45 minutes of a Champions League game since October 2022 (vs Viktoria Plzen).

Overall, they finished with 21 attempts (six on target), worth 3.7 expected goals (xG) to Praha’s 0.1 xG from three shots, and Chivu was thrilled with Inter’s performance.

“The game was important and taken seriously. Our attitude was normal,” Chivu said.

“It’s a tightrope, you have to keep the balance. The boys always try to have fun; you have to have the right passion, but without losing focus or your attitude.

“To me, it seems like they’re growing, but they’ve behaved brilliantly since the beginning of the season.”

Marcus Thuram was one of Inter’s standout performers, getting an assist for Dumfries’ goal, though he was seen limping at full-time.

“He says it’s a cramp. We’ll do some tests [on Wednesday], and we hope it’s nothing serious,” Chivu added of his forward.

Thuram also played down injury concerns, claiming it was a “small thing, nothing serious”.

Inter made it to the final of the Champions League last season before suffering the heaviest-ever defeat in a showpiece match.

This year, they are given a 7% chance of making it back to the final by the Opta supercomputer, with just a 3% likelihood of lifting the trophy, but Thuram is not thinking that far ahead just yet.

“I take things game by game; we’ll see after that,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “The Champions League is really long; we’re only in September.”