Inter coach Simone Inzaghi has told the squad that everything is still very much to play for over the rest of the season in his speech ahead of tomorrow evening’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg match against Benfica.
This according to today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, via FCInter1908, who report that the 47-year-old roused his troops with a speech emphasizing that their destiny is in their hands over the next month and a bit.
There is a sense that Inter are on the precipice in a number of senses.
The past few weeks have seen the team in free fall in the league as they’ve lost four in five matches amid a goalscoring drought that has become a real crisis.
On the other hand, in both the Champions League and the Coppa Italia, the Nerazzurri can feel the finals of each respective competition within their reach.
There will be no let-up from the packed fixture list as Inter go in search of the results they need to both regain their place in the Serie A top four and keep moving on in the knockout rounds of the two cup competitions.
The morale has taken several blows with each bad result in the league, with Saturday’s loss to Monza perhaps the most devastating one yet.
Paradoxically, in midweek the Nerazzurri have always been able to rely on a big result to give them a boost, not least last week’s statement win away to Benfica.
For the coach, the key thing to emphasize to his players has been that nothing is off the table yet.
Even with the team now chasing AC Milan, Roma, and Lazio in the Serie A table, they can still make a late push and get back into the Champions League places.
And in Europe, the job against Benfica is not done, but with the right attitude and performance, there is little that the team cannot do in the Champions League after having come this far already.