Inzaghi charges Inter: “We need a business with Barça, but I believe in it”

From our correspondent Filippo Conticello

October 11th
– BARCELONA

While the pressure cooker mounts all around and the call to arms of the Catalans vaguely recalls that of 2010, Simone Inzaghi appears with a smile in the belly of Camp Noi before the battle: “I live it serenely”, he admits. If tomorrow the Inter fans cannot enter with their black and blue shirts in an area other than the away sector, the coach simply remembers that “opposing fans are always welcome at San Siro …”. As if to say, it’s just football, after all. “In Barcelona I have always found a lot of education…”, the coach continued with style. Also because, apart from the environment, Inter now has an opportunity that seemed impossible only a few weeks ago: “On the day of the draw we knew we had to do something extraordinary. We play the group with all our strength, we will find a very hot stadium, but we are Inter and we will have to play our game, knowing that there will be difficulties during the match. We will have to be good at the worst moment to suffer together and then put Barcelona in difficulty with what we have prepared. ”

BEYOND THE BUS

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In the press room of the stadium-temple of Barça we return to talk a lot about the first leg because the Spanish media are pulling Simone by the jacket both on the referees theme (“Tomorrow the referees of San Siro will be on the field, so Uefa has judged positive the they prove them … “, Inzaghi’s defense) and on the alleged bus that would be prepared to stand in front of Onana’s goal (” Mine is not a defensive team, you know my story at Inter. In the first months we made a good football recognized throughout Europe “, the proud claim of the coach). In short, the memory of what was a week ago is not faded, on the contrary it is very present in everyone’s mind: “In the first leg we suffered together, especially in the second half, to take away space from Barcelona which is a quality team. But my team can adapt to various contexts and a large part of the game will also pass through our possession phase. We play against a team that prefers to have the ball, but we also have a quality midfield and quality defenders. We will have to try to keep possession as much as possible, dribble better than in the first leg because we are away ”.

THOSE DOUBTS

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More than whether to put the bus or not, Inter’s doubt is ahead because, in the shortage of strikers, it would be tempting to advance Mkhitaryan and rely on a single striker. Just an idea also because everything is still in the manager’s mind: “Not even my players know the formation,” added Simone -. I carry my doubts, I can change and I still have time to decide. I have two full-time strikers who come from three, four consecutive games, possibly I can also raise Calhanoglu and Mkhitaryan as a second striker. Starting with Dzeko and Lautaro, I know that on the bench I have Curatolo and Carboni, two young players… But with so many games it is common to have injuries. I certainly would have liked to have played with both teams fully and maybe replayed it at San Siro (laughs, ed). We change stadium, but we are prepared to play a match up to Inter. We are a mature team, we know that we must be lucid and compact as we were also in the first leg. “Above all, watch out for certain situations that were reproduced to exhaustion in the (somewhat sterile) siege of the Catalans seven days ago: “Barcelona will make a lot of crosses. We will have to be good at avoiding them and marking inside the area …” And then it is better to think that the next round is really there, you can touch it: “Ten points could be enough, but in a group with a team at zero they might not represent a certainty… “, Inzaghi’s conclusion.