Inter’s CEO Beppe Marotta stopped by Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia to share his thoughts going into the Serie A derby della Madonnina against AC Milan at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milano’s San Siro district, with kick-off scheduled for 20.30 CET.

“The debry has a special taste, no matter how you go into it. The league table is irrelevant. In this moment Milan are one point ahead of us and we have a lot of motivation.”

“With regards to being knocked out of the Europa League, it left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths, the fans, the club and the players. We have to stress that we were missing 9 starting players in the squad available to Spalletti, although I am not trying to make any excuses. We deserved to lose and we are eliminated. Today we can find calm and erase the memories of that bitter night.”

“Icardi absolutely deserves to return to the squad. He is an Inter player in every way therefore as a consequence we expect the issue to be resolved. Not even I know if he will come to the stadium tonight, but we can say that this is relative. He is absolutely an Inter player.”

“We have to take on this aspect but I don’t want any other analyses to come from what I am saying. I can only say that that all the components are present to resolve the problem. We need to pay attention to the details, everyone involved must do so, but the components needed to resolve it is all there.”

“I am optimistic that this issue will be resolved because intelligent people need to adapt good sense, there is always hope and our hope is to recover a player that has given a lot to Inter and that is part of a important staff that deserves his provision. However, the decisions have been made, under which we move forward.”

“I don’t want to talk about this any more, we could talk about this for an hour, but we are here in our spot, for an important night for our football. You should all have the sensibility to understand that we are here to concentrate on this match.”