Inter coach Simone Inzaghi spoke of his pride at seeing his players selected for the upcoming World Cup, and was not concerned that Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku could aggravate his current injury.
Lukaku has barely played for Inter since returning on loan from Chelsea in the summer, with the striker’s season disrupted by a thigh injury, and he suffered a relapse that has ruled him out of tomorrow’s Serie A match against Atalanta.
However, in his pre-match press conference ahead of the fixture at the Gewiss Stadium, as reported by FCInterNews.it, Inzaghi insisted that he was not worried about Lukaku’s fitness and hoped he would have a successful tournament in Qatar, alongside Argentine forwards Lautaro Martinez and Joaquin Correa.
“I’m not worried and I’m happy that three out of our four forwards will go to the World Cup,” the former Lazio coach declared.
“There is great confidence for everyone, Romelu was very keen to come back for the last few games with us, he managed to make two appearances but had a relapse, making a gradual recovery.
“I wish him and the other forwards who will go to the World Cup a great tournament and that they come back here in the best possible way.”
Inter have suffered a mixed start to the season and find themselves in fifth place, whilst Atalanta are sixth, and Inzaghi felt that the match tomorrow would come down to attitude and desire from the two teams.
“We know that the match will be challenging. The difference will be made by the motivations that the teams will be able to put on the pitch. We have had three days to prepare for it in the best possible way.
“We will go on the pitch to win every match. Of course, after the Juventus defeat there were two days of analysis, then there was the excellent win against Bologna,” Inzaghi continued.
“But we must not look back, let’s look at the very difficult match tomorrow in Bergamo, a very tough place to go.”
Inter have struggled when facing teams around them in Serie A, and are yet to claim a single point from an opponent in the top eight, and Inzaghi recognised it was a problem, but pointed to their European exploits as reason to be confident.
“Let’s say that it is something that was clearly lacking in the league, we probably have to work more on these games.
“We are working on it, but in the Champions League we have managed to limit this problem. Tomorrow we hope it will be the first time we get a win,” he added.
The Nerazzurri have not drawn a game in the league this season, and Inzaghi pointed to his side’s attacking approach as a factor.
The former striker was also wary of facing an Atalanta side that have lost their last two games.
“We are a team that always play to win, there are probably some matches where it is the result of chance. The only one was that of Barcelona, it was very important but perhaps we deserved something more.
“Regardless of the defeats, Atalanta are a well organised team, with their own principles. We know that we will meet an opponent with great determination, so we will have to be at our best.”
With the Serie A season set to be paused after this round of fixtures for the World Cup break, Inzaghi was asked for his assessment of the first half of the campaign, and where Inter could improve.
“Clearly we did an exceptional job for the Champions League, in Serie A we have to do better,” Inzaghi admitted.
“Tomorrow will be the 15th game, we dropped some points due to our mistakes and some to other factors, but we have to look at ourselves by improving game by game.
“In the league, except for Napoli, who are doing something extraordinary, all the other teams have made mistakes and dropped important points, even us, in the head-to-head matches ,and it’s something we are trying to improve,” he added.
