APPIANO GENTILE - Andrea Stramaccioni is ready for his second derby against AC Milan as Inter coach. During his press conference this afternoon, he looked back on his first derby against the Rossoneri, when his side came from 1-2 down to win 4-2 at the tail end of last season: "This is obviously a totally different match to that one because we have a new group of players. We started on a path together at the beginning of the season and that's very different to when you take over a team midway through the season, with things that have already happened. It's a path we started together on 4 July and which has brought us to Week 7 of Serie A."
The coach was reminded of his claim made in Baku that AC Milan are favourites: "That was a joke because your colleague said it's normally the underdogs who win. I think it's hard to say who is favourite because both teams have changed a lot since last term. I see it as one of those matches where any result is possible, it's impossible to predict."
His opposite number Massimiliano Allegri, in his own press conference, had said that Inter were more experienced and Milan would have to be smarter. Stramaccioni retorted: "If my players are more experienced than his, then he certainly has more experience than me, so I guess we can say we're even. As for being smart, I think he meant that Inter have a mix of experience and other players - some young, others less so - who are trying to become a part of Inter's future. Tomorrow's match will be an important test following our recent good performances: it's an opportunity for us to show how far we've developed our big-team mentality."The coach was then asked to assess which targets have already been achieved in this new Inter and which ones haven't. "One of the positives is seeing a group that works together as one, and the best example of that was Thursday's game in Baku. I think the players have realised that I place a lot of importance on what I see in training during the week. On the negative side, we're still looking for consistency and getting used to playing in a certain way. Tomorrow will test us in that sense too – after Fiorentina now we have another tough game against top-notch opposition. It will provide us with answers and whether they are positive or negative they won't be definitive, but they will give us some input as to what we should be working on."
