Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi feels that beating Liverpool tomorrow will be extremely difficult, but that it is achievable.
Speaking in a press conference ahead of the match, as reported by FCInterNews, the coach emphasized taking a confident attitude into the tie to try and get into the Champions League round of sixteen.
Inter will face one of their most imposing challenges of the season when they come up against Liverpool, one of the strongest teams in Europe.
The Reds got eighteen points out of eighteen from a group containing Spanish champions Atletico Madrid, current Portuguese league leaders Porto, and Inter’s city rivals AC Milan, and are currently second in the Premier League table.
However, the Nerazzurri have had an extremely positive season of their own, and their aim will be to go toe-to-toe with the English side.
“The English teams are very strong,” Inzaghi emphasized, “they all won their groups apart from Chelsea who lost the top spot on the last day.”
“Liverpool are one of the strongest teams in Europe but I am happy that our club, the fans and the guys themselves have gotten to where we deserve to be, playing against opponents of this calibre,” he went on.
The coach emphasized that “We haven’t made it to the round of sixteen in many years, it will be very difficult but we will try to go for it with the weapons we have at our disposal.”
“On paper, Liverpool are the favourites but matches are played on the pitch,” he added. “We know what we have to do and I will ask the team to take to the pitch and try to impose our style of football.”
“I will want the guys to go out there with clear heads,” he stressed, “and we know that in these games determination can make the difference, and my players have shown that they can do this all season.”
He went on that “The signs my team have given me give me confidence. On Saturday we played an excellent match against a very strong Napoli side, a well organized team.”
“In the first half we played our normal game,” he said of Saturday’s match, “but in certain matches we need more.”
The coach explained that “We conceded a penalty after five minutes, we could have fallen apart, but instead we stayed in the game.”
“In the second half we showed a great desire not to lose, and to win, and this gives me great confidence for tomorrow’s match,” Inzaghi went on. “We respect our opponent but we don’t go into it already beaten.”
Of his selections in attack, the coach stated that “Everyone gets the same chances to play up front. Today we have a training session, tomorrow we’ll have another one.”
“We have played many intense and physical matches,” he emphasized. “Everyone’s condition will have to be evaluated. Two strikers will play from the start, one will come on as a substitute during the match.”
“Tomorrow I’ll make my decision but I’m fortunate to have mature players who accept my choices,” he added.
“When I have the opportunity to rotate them I do as well,” he continued, “especially as playing every three days makes it difficult to regain physical and mental energy.”
On the Nerazzurri’s game in hand against Bologna, Inzaghi said that “It is what it is, I have to accept it as I’ve accepted it in previous seasons.”
“It often happens to me, one year with Lazio I had to wait a long time for a match against Udinese, last year it happened with Torino,” he recalled.
“This year it’s Bologna,” he went on. “We’ll think about it in due course, it will be a very important match, but today the priority is Liverpool.”
On the importance of making it to the quarter-finals, the coach said that “I’veve already talked about it with the team, the first step was to reach the knockout rounds, and now we know that we could reach the quarterfinals.”
“We face a top club,: he added, “with very strong individual players, but the games all start 0-0. We will come at them with all our weapons and motivation, we know that we cannot leave anything out on the pitch.”
On having to face Scudetto rivals AC Milan and Napoli ahead of Liverpool, the coach said that “We always knew we were facing Milan and Napoli before them.”
“Personally, I’m very satisfied with the performances, for seventy minutes we had a great derby and in Naples we played an excellent second half,” he reflected.
“It’s normal that we’re not satisfied taking one point from six, but despite that we played two great matches against two very good teams who along with us and Juventus will fight in an open title race, which should go to the last day and will come down to the details.”
On Liverpool’s two wins over AC Milan in the group stage, Inzaghi said that “My staff and I have looked over those matches as well as their recent ones.”
“Liverpool have great players in every position, a deep squad, and a great coach,” he continued. “We will have to be at our best throughout the tie.”
“When we have the ball, if we make the wrong pass then they can hit us on the counter,” he explained. “And when they have it, Alisson and Van Dijk know how to play long balls.”
“They have a full-back with a very culture right foot, almost like a regista,” he said of Trent Alexander-Arnold. “They can create problems in every area of the pitch.”
