APPIANO GENTILE – Frank de Boer has made it clear that his squad are fully focused on Thursday night’s Europa League opener against Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
Talk of Inter v Juventus on Sunday evening is buzzing round the streets of Milan, but the Nerazzurri coach was quick to dismiss suggestions his side were already looking ahead to the Derby d’Italia.
"It would be massive to get three points in our first match of the Europa League group stages," began De Boer. "We’re all concentrating on our next game, even if there’s a lot of talk of Juventus in the media. We’re focused on Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
"Whether you’re a coach or a player, at Inter you want to win every game. We want to start the Europa League with the three points, as is our goal in every game."
De Boer revealed that he and his team have been studying Hapoel meticulously in the run-up to the game.
"We can use technology to get to know our opponents and analyse how they play. Hapoel play in a league that’s obviously not one of the more well known or closely followed ones, but they’re the Israeli champions and came really close to qualifying for the Champions League, eliminating Olympiacos and pushing Celtic all the way. That shows they have quality so we take the match very seriously," said the Inter boss.
The Dutch coach was also asked for his opinion on Inter’s recent win at Pescara in Serie A.
"We controlled the majority of the game against Pescara and created lots of chances. The best thing for me was the 20 minutes before we scored, though we did give a bit too much away after going 1-0 down," explained De Boer.
"It’s not a problem with the balance of the team or with the midfielders – when we gift chances to our opponents it’s the whole team’s fault. At times we tried to build from the back and ended up making mistakes, but all teams have these issues. There are always going to be problems in the way you build the play but we need to improve on our reading of the game.
"We’ve worked hard so it’s natural that the results come. In sport and in life everything can change in an instant. We have to keep fighting to keep the positive mental vibe going by winning more matches."
Last but certainly not least, De Boer also said a few words about captain Mauro Icardi, who was appearing alongside him at the press conference.
"Obviously Mauro is a key player, but he’s right when he says that if he scores it’s because everyone has done their job. If Handanovic hadn’t made those two saves at 1-0 then we wouldn’t have won, for example. Icardi is top quality but that goes for everyone. Every player needs to work hard show their desire to get better every day and help the team."
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