APPIANO GENTILE –"We’re aiming as high as possible. We’re hungry to do well, and in a club like this that means finishing as high as you can. I’m certainly not the type to say exactly where we’ll finish. But I can say we’ll give everything we have." Words from Esteban Cambiasso as he discussed Inter’s possibilities of reaching the Champions League, on this edition of InterNOS.
And as the Champions League was being discussed, it was inevitable that talk would turn to that night in Madrid, Inter v Bayern Munich, when it seemed unthinkable that José Mourinho’s side could lose the clash: "Certain situations made us realise just how strong we were. What I can say, and what the president and my team-mates have also said, is what we went through in the pre-Siena week was worse compared to the one ahead of Madrid, because Siena had nothing to lose. They had already been relegated to Serie B, while in Madrid two even sides faced off. What did I feel when we won the Champions League? It was the crossing of a finish line. An even bigger sensation because we knew just how much it meant to the fans. I had waited for 15 years, but there were many who had waited for 45 years."
In recent interviews Cambiasso had stated "now the players always know what to do on the pitch". Today Cuchu was asked if that meant they hadn’t known in the post-Mourinho era. "Compared to the other coaches we had – well, maybe Gasperini, but he didn’t have much time and neither did I since I arrived late after the Copa America – Mazzarri is someone who has his system of play and adapts his players to this system he’s believed in for 12 years. The other coaches adapted their idea of the game to the players they had, so perhaps they struggled more.
"Mazzarri knows his right winger does this, that his central midfielder does that, etc. I wasn’t speaking badly of anyone. Mazzarri is much more loyal to his past experiences and his beliefs about the game. It’s not a question of authority or the lack thereof, or that before we didn’t have it but now we do. It’s a tactical issue. I believe Mazzarri’s teams have always had their own precise identity."
