APPIANO GENTILE – "Two wins and a draw in their last four games, and a very hard-fought defeat against Napoli. That's how Atalanta have fared recently, so they're coming into this match on a great run and with morale high. We're coming off of two very intense encounters ourselves and we must give this game the respect it deserves. There's plenty of hunger at our end and we want to use that to get back to winning ways in front of our fans." That was how Andrea Stramaccioni weighed up tomorrow's meeting between Inter and Atalanta, set for a 20:45 kick-off at the Meazza.
A match Inter go into determined to prove that Rodrigo Palacio's injury hasn't hit the team on a psychological level. "You can be sad about it until midnight on the day Rodrigo got injured, but then you have to move on," Stramaccioni continued. "We had a very good training session yesterday and I saw a lot of desire. I'm sure that tomorrow can be a key game. The lads look fired up. I don't think anyone's confidence has dropped, on the contrary I see great drive to get a result. And with the help of our fans - because I know they'll get behind us, as they always do - we'll give it everything we've got. If we can beat Atalanta we'll still be in the running. I feel very confident about my team going into tomorrow's game. Rodrigo's injury does affect things for us on the pitch, but on a psychological level we're all bent on showing that Inter will keep playing. I'm looking at Inter v Atalanta in a positive frame of mind, though it's going to be an extremely tough. We'll need to produce even more vigour than normal - whatever that takes."
