Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi feels that the Nerazzurri will need to be at their best to get a result against Benfica tomorrow.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia, via FCInterNews, the coach also made clear that he expects the Portuguese club to play a similar style as they did when the two teams met last season.
Tomorrow evening, Benfica will face Inter at the San Siro.
The two teams had previously met just a few months ago, in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
And this time around, the two teams face off in the group stage of the competition.
Neither got off to an ideal start to their group stage campaign.
Inter could only scrape a draw away to Real Sociedad in their opening match. That came courtesy of a Lautaro Martinez equalizer late in the match.
And in truth, it was hardly a result that the Nerazzurri deserved, as it had been the home side in the ascendancy for much of the match.
And for Benfica it was even worse.
Playing at the Estadio da Luz, the Portuguese fell to a 0-2 defeat against Red Bull Salzburg.
Inter Coach Simone Inzaghi Believes A Top Performance Needed Vs Benfica
Inzaghi noted that “We came up against Benfica last season, and the coach and playing principles have remained the same.”
The Inter coach called Benfica “An excellent, intense team that has excellent coverage of space on the pitch.”
He noted that “They’re an excellent team in Europe who’ve won almost all their matches. An excellent Inter performance will be necessary.”
Inzaghi noted that “We’ll need to get the match off to a good start. They’re a very intense team.”
“They cover every part of the pitch very well,” the coach said of Benfica.
“We’ll also have to be intelligent in terms of how we cope with different moments of the match,” Inzaghi said. “They’re a great team in possession, so we’ll have to know how to read the moments.”
Of the possibility of qualifying for the knockout rounds with a match or two to spare, the Nerazzurri coach said that “That would be helpful.”
“But we know that the Champions League is very difficult,” he added.
“The group is very balanced, so we’ll have to do very well in the home matches, and then also get what we can from the two remaining away matches.”