Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi feels that it’s still too early to say for certain whether striker Romelu Lukaku or defender Milan Skriniar will play against Porto tomorrow, whether from the start or off the bench.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of tomorrow evening’s Champions League round of sixteen second leg match, via FCInterNews, the coach updated on the prospective availability of both of the two players, among other topics related to the match.

Inzaghi will be certain to try and play what he feels is his strongest possible starting eleven in tomorrow evening’s match, given that it is virtually the most important one in the team’s season so far.

Moreover, the coach will be thinking about how to potentially impact the match by turning to his bench.

In this respect, the situations of Lukaku and Skriniar could be crucial considerations, given that it is clear what both can give the team, but both have doubts relating to form and fitness hanging over their heads.

Asked about his selections for tomorrow’s match, Inzaghi replied “Lukaku, Skriniar, I have a number of doubts about the lineup, I’ll have to decide on them tomorrow.”

“Skriniar has been out for two weeks and I’ll have to evaluate how he’s doing,” he continued.

“The thing that’s really struck me is how much work Skriniar has put in to be ready to tomorrow’s match, he’s done absolutely everything to be at my disposal, but I’ll have to evaluate his condition.”

“I still have doubts in attack,” the coach continued, “we’ll see about Lukaku.”

“Correa is also fully recovered, and we’ll see how the match develops.”

“Regarding the referee, I’d say he had an excellent match in Barcelona where he rightly sent me off [for protests aimed at the officials in the dying moments of the 3-3 group stage draw at the Camp Nou], and I have no doubt he’ll do a great job tomorrow as well,” Inzaghi said of match official Szymon Marciniak.

Of how the team have reacted to Friday’s shock defeat away to Spezia, the coach said that “We’ve talked over it, we’ve analyzed and reviewed everything.”

“But that’s already in the past, the match of the moment is tomorrow’s against Porto.”

“The way we lost in La Spezia, playing the way we did, I think maybe happens once in every five hundred matches, but we deal with it, lick our wounds, and we go again,” Inzaghi continued.

“Now let’s focus on Porto, a very difficult opponent in an intense stadium.”

“We played the first leg at the San Siro, now the second leg and we want to play for a place in the next round in the best way,” the coach said.

Regarding the mentality that will be needed for tomorrow evening’s match, Inzaghi said that “We’ve already played certain matches like this, this season as well as last.”

“We know we can take the next step into the last eight of this competition.”

“We want to improve on last season, that’s what we’re always working to do,” Inzaghi said.

“We played the first leg at San Siro, now we go into the second which will be even more intense, and against a team who are used to these kinds of matches.”

Of the presence of Inter President Steven Zhang with the team, the coach said that “Steven helps us every day.”

“We’re always meeting every day with him or with the directors,” he continued.

“They’re with us during the good times and the bad times, it’s easy to only be around after the team wins.”

Asked why this Inter team should have the trust of the fans, Inzaghi responded “Based on what we’ve done in the Champions League.”

“On the day of the draw, I don’t know if most people were expecting us to get into the round of sixteen, but we never lost belief.”

“We wanted to get to this point, we played a good match in the first leg, but now there’s another ninety minutes plus stoppage time to come,” Inzaghi stressed.