Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi has managed to outdo his predecessor Antonio Conte in the Champions League, and he has done so with inferior resources.
This is the view in today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, who compare the two coaches’ respective track records in Europe’s competition and note that Inzaghi has had to do without players like Achraf Hakimi and Christian Eriksen.
If there was a major blight on Conte’s largely successful two seasons in charge of Inter, it was the failure to reach the Champions League knockout stages.
Inzaghi will not necessarily have been widely expected to do so in his first season given that the club lost all of Hakimi, Eriksen, and Romelu Lukaku in his first summer in charge.
Nevertheless, the 46-year-old managed to qualify with the squad he had.
This summer, the Nerazzurri regained Lukaku but lost another key player in the form of Ivan Perisic.
Lukaku has been injured for virtually the entirety of Inter’s group stage campaign, as has key midfielder Marcelo Brozovic.
Moreover, the Nerazzurri have had what has widely been considered to be the “group of death” to cope with, facing the likes of Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
Nevertheless, Inzaghi guided the Nerazzurri to the round of sixteen with a game to spare once again.
This would be an impressive achievement for any coach, but looks even better when contrasted with Inter’s persistent struggles in Europe under Conte.
Moreover, the Corriere contrasts the Nerazzurri’s heroics in Europe’s top competition to that of Conte’s current team Tottenham Hotspur.
The Premier League team will need to get a result on the final day of the group against Marseille in order to book their place in the knockout rounds alongside Inter, having drew a more straightforward group than the Nerazzurri on paper.