In the end, the former Chelsea boss had to settle with a 2-1 scoreline in his first Serie A win with the Nerazzurri.

Gianvito Plasmati stunned the San Siro by putting Catania ahead in the 42nd minute, but a deflected goal from Ricardo Quaresma on his debut and a disputable own goal from Christian Terlizzi early in the second half gave Inter the spoils.

In the closing stages of the game, Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed a one-on-one with Catania stopper Albano Bizzarri before he made claims for a goal when Bizzarri made another save on the line.

"It was a difficult match, but the result should have been more like 4-1 or 5-1," he said.

"In the first half with 11 against 11 we played well, creating chances.

"I wanted to get back to 1-1 before the end of the first half so in the second I could use other solutions like Mancini and Adriano to win the game.

"Against Sampdoria (on the opening day of the season) we had chances to score and again today I remember so many shots on goal, because in football if you want to win you have to take risks."

Inter had to play the second half with 10 men after Sulley Muntari was sent off at the end of the opening period for violent conduct when the former Udinese and Portsmouth midfielder was seen to swing an arm in the face of Giacomo Tedesco.

But Mourinho insisted it was not a dirty challenge.

"Until now my team has never had any disciplinary problems and we've played a lot of games," he said.

"The referees from the Supercoppa and the league will have no problem telling you that it's easy to play with my teams because they are not dirty and they play fair.

"I only feel sorry for Muntari who now won't be able to play the next game, but it's always going to be like that for him because the referees are influenced by his past.

"I've seen four or five DVDs of Tedesco and he's one of those players that in England they call dirty and in Spain, Portugal and Italy and defined as being 'intelligent'."

Catania coach Walter Zenga admitted 2-1 was a fair result, and felt Mourinho's claims of a 5-1 scoreline being more fitting were "exaggerated".

"Should they have won 5-1? I think Mourinho has exaggerated things a bit there," he said.

"Really they won because of two own goals. We played well and if I have any complaints it's that in the second half, with a man extra, we didn't play high enough up the pitch."