For Inter tonight will mean making their debut at Wembley, but former Inter coach Gigi Simoni coached there in 1993 when his Cremonese beat Derby in the final in the Anglo-Italian Cup, something the former Inter coach spoke about in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
Simoni, how important in your career was that game?
“I have very sweet memories, at that point it was the highest point in my career since my win in the UEFA cup with Inter came later. It was a unique opportunity where we were able to compete with teams we otherwise would not have faced.”
How did you approach Wembley? You were a team used to play in the Serie B, all of a sudden on one of the biggest stages in world football?
“The players were excited, I felt a bit pressure coming in to the game. To arrive at the stadium and seeing the two towers was a real thrill, to get inside was impressive and everything was bigger. An interesting scenario where we knew the importance of Wembley in the football world.”
What can a coach do to manage this kind of situation?
“In my case it was very simple, there was no fear in my eyes, just the desire to have fun. Wembley excites you, that day there were 40.000 people in the stands. Then it was not as easy to watch the game on TV as it is today and it only fueled the myth of English football, something that we wanted to discover.”
How many fans does this Inter deserve?
“This Inter has great competitive qualities and I am confident about Wembley. Spalletti has 3-4 champions, Icardi included who is a phenomenon by the way. There is a difference compared to Juventus, the number of great players available but there is one thing I can not explain, the fact that there is a huge distance between Inter’s highs and lows and it should not be like that, not if the club wants to see great results.”