MILAN - One person who couldn't miss this afternoon's derby at the Centro Sportivo Vismara in Milan was Inter managing director and chief executive officer Ernesto Paolillo, who has always been close to the Nerazzurri youth academy. This is what he had to say after the Inter U-19 side's 2-0 away win: "The boys went out there today full of conviction, confident in their ability and with no sense an inferiority despite some of the "big" names fielded by the Rossoneri. We didn't run many risks and we produced an awful lot of good football. I must compliment Stramaccioni for the way he sends his team out and the way he gets them playing."
Paolillo continued: "One example of the coach's excellent work is Bessa and the notable improvement he's made: we've always known the player had talent but never before this season has he put in so much work for the rest of the team. So we must give the coach credit for creating a close-knit group. It's a wonderful thing."
The Nerazzurri chief executive then commented on the "dream" of the NextGen Series, a competition which Inter entered amidst general scepticism. The Nerazzurri have now reached the last four: "In our first game we paid the price for the emotion of the occasion and our inexperience, but the team learnt their lesson from it and it inspired them to want to prove their worth. Then we saw that performance in the quarter-finals away to Sporting, who were backed by 8,000 fans, which earned us a massive win. It shows how useful this tournament is. It enables you to pit yourself against teams and players from different backgrounds and it helps the youngsters to develop. We'll go to London to give it our best shot."
