Cristian Chivu urged his Inter players to be "ready to play dirty" after being handed their first defeat of their 2025-26 Serie A season by Udinese on Sunday. 

Chivu watched on as Denzel Dumfries' 17th-minute opener was quickly cancelled out by Keinan Davis' penalty, before Arthur Atta struck what proved to be the winner late in the first half.

The result saw Inter suffer their earliest defeat in a top-flight season since 2018-19, while Udinese claimed their first away victory against the Serie A giants since December 2017.

But Chivu's side had their chances, with Federico Dimarco seeing a potential leveller ruled out by VAR for offside before Carlos Augusto had a header blocked on the line late on. 

Indeed, Inter ended the match with an expected goals (xG) tally of 1.89 from their 16 shots, compared to Udinese's 1.19 from their 10 attempts, but Chivu wanted more. 

"It was better after the break, more determination and more grit, even though we lost sharpness again as time wore on and were unable to finish off our chances," Chivu said. 

"We were unable to create more. At half-time, I asked the players to move more, make different runs to create spaces and find the vertical passes, so we could open Udinese up. 

"You must try to play beautiful football, but also be ready to play dirty when necessary, as a ball pumped into the box can do more damage sometimes than a lovely pass.

"We weren't magnificent after the first game, we aren't terrible after this one. We remain a work in progress.

"We've got to learn to find that balance, focus and work hard. There's a very long way to go this season."

Inter have now won only two of their last five home games in Serie A (D1 L2), after six consecutive home victories in the league.

It was far from the ideal result heading into the first international break of the season, with the Nerazzurri now preparing for the start of a busy couple of months. 

Chivu's team travel to the Allianz Stadium to face Juventus on September 13, before kicking off their Champions League campaign against Ajax four days later. 

"There are still two weeks to go," Chivu added. 

"We won't have many players left in Milan during the break, but I hope that this time off will let them return with more determination and fire.

"The game was on the right track, but we weren't fluid, we couldn't find the right build-up to create chances. 

"At the first difficult situation for us, we gave away a penalty, then lost our sharpness and focus. We could see that we were struggling."