Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi feels that the team are not distracted by the Serie A title race as they head into tomorrow evening’s Coppa Italia final against Juventus.
Speaking in a press conference ahead of the match, as reported by FCInterNews, the coach emphasized that the team’s focus is just on the final against the Bianconeri.
Inter will take a pause from the Scudetto race against city rivals AC Milan to compete for their first Coppa Italia trophy in eleven years in tomorrow’s final, and getting the right balance will be important.
For the coach, the important thing is to keep their motivation on the task at hand, and he doesn’t expect to compromise in his approach for the team with the remaining league matches in mind.
“Being here is a great source of pride,” he said. “Ir’s a match that will be broadcast all over the world, it’s very important. It’s a final.”
“For me there are no precise formulas to win them,” the coach continued. “They must be played with intensity, aggression, determination, knowing that we face a very strong opponent.”
“We look forward and we have to give 120% to raise our second trophy of the season,” he added.
Inzaghi said that “This is important for everyone. We know how far we’ve come on our path along with the staff, how our work began, what we started with.”
“Along the way we’ve done very well, thanks to the efforts of the guys for the entire season,” he added. “Because of the circumstances we’ve gotten ourselves in, expectations have grown.”
He pointed out that “We won our first trophy of the season in January, but in football it’s only right not to dwell on that.”
“The future is tomorrow,” the coach emphasized, “once the game is over we’ll start thinkong about the last two matches in the league and the title race against Milan.”
“Thinking back to what we started with, I think a great job has been done thanks to the club, the team, and our fantastic fans,” he added. “It’s now May 11, I wouldn’t have expected all this on July 8.”
Of tomorrow’s match, the coach said that “It’s a final, the details will make the difference. We’ve already met three times, we know that they have a lot of quality so we’ll have to manage the game in the best way possible.”
“I like the numbers for the season, but I owe everything to the club who have always supported me and my staff in everything we’ve done,” he said.
“It’s been a great season, tomorrow we play our fiftieth match,” Inzaghi went on. “For 7-8 months we played great football, then we dropped off and paid for the amount of matches by dropping a few points.”
“But if I think back to the Champions League round of sixteen and how we played, and the final we’ve now reached, I’d probably lose a few more points to be here,” he said.
“We’ve talked about it as a team,” the coach continued, “we have to leave the league aside. We would have liked to play this match after the last two games probably, but there’s no problem.”
“We have the final and then the last matches in the league,” he went on. “I’ve played in finals as a manager and player, both before and after the end of the league season. I’ve adapted and I’ll do so once again.”
“Finals are very important” Inzaghi said, “I was lucky enough to play several of them including as a player. There’s no secret formula. We’ll have to play an intense match, the details will make the difference.”
Of the previous matches against Juventus this season, the coach said that “They were all different from each other. Tomorrow will be an open game, with a lot of quality on the pitch.”
“We’ll have to interpret it in the best way possible and make as few mistakes as possible because finals are often decided by the smallest episodes,” he said.
“Matches are always different from each other,” he added. “Sometimes you score immediately and lose, sometimes you go behind and win. There’s no precise science to it.”
“We have to leave our hearts on the field,” he went on, “we’ve shown that we can do it. Over fifty match we’ve given everything, we lost five times, in the others we did very well and sometimes we’ve lost when we didn’t deserve to.”
He said that coming back to the Stadio Olimpico for the final as a former Lazio manager is “A unique emotion, because I made my career as a coach and a player here.”
“I’ll see many fans who loved me and with whom I had a great time over twenty years,” he went on. “Now I’m proud to be the coach of this great club.”
“We have won a trophy and now we have two more up for grabs,” Inzaghi added. “Tomorrow we’ll play very well in the Coppa Italia final, with a lot of confidence against an opponent we respect a lot.”
“If you want to win a final you have to be hungry,” the coach said. “This cup brings out something in me and in the players.”
“We wanted the Supercoppa at all costs,” he added, “it was something the club hadn’t won in over ten years. Same with the Coppa Italia. We’ve prepared very well as Juventus will have done as well.”
“I’ve coached Lazio and Inter and they are fanbases who are very alike,” the coach said, “very passionate supporters who push their teams onwards.”
“At home and away we’ve always felt a big presence of our fans alongside us,” he added. “The away match in Udine was very important and our fans supported us there, from start to finish.”
“Tomorrow evening we know it will be just as important,” he went on. “I’m pleased to hear about the parade and we know that tomorrow we’ll be accompanied by an exceptional supporters.”
On the decisions for the starting eleven, the coach said that “The choices will be made entirely according to tomorrow.”
“Everyone is available, except Vecino who has gritted his teeth in the last few days but his still out for three or four days,” he added.
“Bastoni is recovered but I’ll have to evaluate him,” the coach continued, “tomorrow morning we’ll see how the muscles are doing.”
“I always have several doubts because a coach has to make many choices,” he went on. “Tomorrow I have doubts in various positions, but we’ll have light training in the morning and then I will make my decisions.”
Inzaghi also had a word for midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu, calling him “A player who’s had a great season. He settled in right away.”
“He combines quality and workrate,” he added. “I think he made a leap forward. He’s a complete mezzala who’s done very well and will continue on like this because he wants to work and is a very positive player for the club.”
