ROBERTO MANCINI has conceded that his Internazionale side remain consumed by the fear of conceding late goals and issued a plea for greater concentration and intensity from his defenders ahead of Thursday evening's Europa League visit of Celtic.

The Nerazzurri secured a 2-1 win in Cagliari on Monday to rack up their third successive victory in Serie A and move up to sixth place, but they were forced to withstand some real pressure towards the end of the second half.

Goals from Mateo Kovacic and Mauro Icardi had given Inter a comfortable advantage, but a 73rd minute effort from Samuele Longo altered the flow of the game and led to a somewhat nerve-wracking finish for Mancini.

The Inter head coach saw his side give up an early two-goal lead in the first leg of their round of 32 meeting with the SPFL Premiership champions in Glasgow last week and then concede a last-gasp equaliser to John Guidetti after getting their noses back in front at 3-2.

He accepts there is a tiredness within the ranks as they plough through a relentless series of fixtures. He accepts he has not rotated the squad as he might. However, he is preparing for a ferocious contest with Celtic and does not want to see his side, still fragile in the wake of an awful start to the season, go into their shells when there is a place in the last 16 of a European competition to play for.

"The fear of conceding a goal in the last minutes is always there," said Mancini.

"It happened against Torino, Napoli and Celtic, but it had to stop sooner rather than later.

"We defended much better against Cagliari during the last eight minutes than we have done previously.

"Up to a certain point in the game, the defence managed to defend high up on the pitch and the team was very compact. As soon as the defence fell back, though, Cagliari started to create more and more chances.

"We have to keep defending high up even when we're tired."

Mancini, in his second spell at the club as head coach, is accepting of the fact, though, that drama and a degree of suffering is just part of life at a club that has been hit hard by ownership changes, the introduction of Financial Fair Play and the overall downturn in fortunes within Italian football.

"If we didn't make things difficult for ourselves, we wouldn't be Inter," he said. "We had the chance to score twice in the first half against Cagliari and failed.

"When 2-0 up, it's possible the team relaxed a little, especially with three intense games during the course of the week and not much squad rotation.

"It is easy to let your concentration drop when you are two goals to the good, but we don't want that to happen. We want to be on top form for 90 minutes.

"Up until 2-0, we controlled possession perfectly, but Cagliari pressed and we became too stretched. The defence was too deep."

Kovacic, a 20-year-old Croatian with a growing reputation, was left on the substitutes' bench for the visit to Celtic Park, replacing Icardi with quarter-of-an-hour to go.

Mancini prefers to play him as a 'number 10' and has a handful of players capable of performing in that role, but he may be tempted to unleash the former Dynamo Zagreb midfielder on Celtic following his goalscoring display at the weekend.

"He's young," said Mancini. "He needs time to improve on everything and become a complete midfielder, but it takes time.

"He has very good technique and, at the moment, the best position for him to play at is as a trequartista (playing between the central midfield and strikers).

"As a trequartista, he can afford to lose the ball more than doing it in a more defensive position. Why have I kept him] on the bench? It's a nice problem to have, having either him, Hernanes or Xherdan Shaqiri on the bench.

"It means that Inter slowly are becoming a great team and that is important."

Icardi agrees. The controversial Argentinian striker is in negotiations over a new contract as rumours continue to circulate over a £20m summer transfer to Chelsea or Manchester United, but he has made a promise to put the seemingly relentless speculation over his future to one side and help continue Inter's recent renaissance against Celtic.

"We're playing well," he said. "In these past few months, we have started to adjust to the coach's ideas.

"It was not easy at the start, but we're used to them now. Now, we're thinking about Celtic and getting through to the next round of the Europa League."