Inter coach Simone Inzaghi feels that the Nerazzurri’s Champions League campaign up to this point has been “extraordinary.”
Speaking to Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia ahead of tomorrow evening’s quarterfinal round of sixteen clash, via FCInterNews, the 47-year-old reflected on the Nerazzurri’s run in Europe so far, and also made clear that his team have every intention of going for it tomorrow.
Few expected Inter to even make the knockout rounds when they were drawn into a “group of death” containing the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich right away.
However, Inzaghi and his players have proved the doubters wrong by producing a sequence of performances against some of Europe’s top sides which have seen them earn a place in the last eight of the competition.
Now, the Nerazzurri will have the opportunity to go even further, although they will know that it won’t get any easier up against a Benfica side who have been one of the most in-form in all of Europe under Roger Schmidt this season, particularly in the Champions League.
“We’re up against a team of top quality, they’re unbeaten in the Champions League and finished first in they’re group,” Inzaghi said of what faces Inter tomorrow.
“We’re talking about a very technical team who have been dominant in their league, but we’re here to play with conviction and go for it in a Champions League quarterfinal,” the Nerazzurri coach said.
Asked about the discrepancy between Inter’s erratic form in Serie A and their excellent campaign so far in the Champions League, Inzaghi said that “There’s a lot of reasoning to be done, but then what we as the coaching staff and the guys can do is work harder and better.”
“The guys are putting everything they have into it, we’ve seen how it’s gone in the last couple matches, in my opinion we’ve played two excellent matches but then we haven’t been rewarded for it, we’ve only taken one point.”
“We have to be persistent and use our heads,” the coach continued.
“We know that football is made up of individual moments, and that right now they’re not going our way, but we have to keep our heads and not starting getting preoccupied with fate,” he added.
“As far as the criticisms are concerned, we listen to them but we also go forward one match at a time, knowing that we’ve been doing something extraordinary in the Champions League,” Inzaghi said.
“We know the strengths of our opponent, but we’ll go for it with the weapons we have,” he added.