Legendary former Inter striker Alessandro Altobelli feels that Inter will have to show what their made of if they are to get a vital result away to Juventus tomorrow in Serie A.
Speaking to Italian news outlet Gazzetta.it, Altobelli suggested that the Nerazzurri are not favourites and in fact face an uphill battle, whilst he also gave the view that Lautaro Martinez will be relishing the opportunity to prove himself.
Even with a loss tomorrow evening Inter would not be decisively out of the race for the Serie A title, but they would find themselves increasingly far behind without many matches left to play.
The Nerazzurri will be aiming to be at their best against one of their main rivals and in what will be their toughest challenge left in the league, at least on paper.
A win would be massive in terms of keeping the pressure on the teams ahead of Inter in the table as well as keeping the Bianconeri at bay, but Altobelli believes that achieving this would be anything but easy.
“Sunday will be a crucial match for the Nerazzurri,” he said, “they’re the ones with more to play for. It’s a question of coming back strong to the fight for the title.”
On the favourites for the match, he said “If it had been before the break, I would have said Juve, because Inter had been getting some disappointing results.”
“After the break, I have more confidence in Inter, because I hope they’ve overcome this critical juncture,” he went on.
He predicted that “In any case, I think Juve are favourites because they’re playing at home and in the last few games they’ve shown that a number of players are back to their best.”
“I’m speaking about players who have raised their performance levels compared to two or three months ago,” he elaborated.
Of striker Lautaro Martinez, he suggested that “I’m sure he’s excited, and that he’s the first person to want to open up the game.”
“I hope he proves to be the player we all know he can be,” Altobelli added. “Sunday is an opportunity to show what he’s made of. Il Toro is someone who, on his day, is very hard to stop.”
As to what the Nerazzurri must do to win, he said that “Inter must play their game. They must not leave the ball in the hands of Juve, they must dictate the tempo from start to finish.”
“They must attack and attack the whole time,” he suggested. “This is not a team built to wait around or be calculated. Whenever Inter has pressed high, they’ve always dominated everyone.”
