Stramaccioni: "Moratti motivates and unites us"

APPIANO GENTILE – Andrea Stramaccioni‘s Inter face Cesena, a side already relegated to Serie B, in their Serie A Week 35 fixture tomorrow. The coach had this to say about the opposition in his pre-match press conference: "The team we’ll be up against tomorrow are clearly having a difficult time of things because they’ve just been relegated but if we look at their recent performances they’ve only lost to Juventus, and that was 10 minutes from the end after playing the whole game at high tempo. We certainly won’t underestimate Cesena: Inter will have to be very good tomorrow. We’ve got ourselves in a position where this is an important match and we want to do well in front of our fans. We’re fired up and, as I said, we’re not underestimating Cesena but tomorrow I want to see a top performance from Inter."

It was put to the coach that this is Inter’s chance: it’s now or never. "I hear that every week," Stramaccioni replied with a smile. "It is a great opportunity and of course we’ll be looking out for the results from the other grounds but I’m focusing on Inter. We’ve benefited from this situation in the league where things are even because by doing well we’ve managed to get ourselves back in the mix. We realise that it wouldn’t take much for that to change, but we’re concentrating on our own game. Then when all this weekend’s matches have been played we’ll see where we are."

Yesterday Pep Guardiola announced he was stepping down as Barcelona manager and around the same time Massimo Moratti reiterated his confidence in Andrea Stramaccioni. Asked what he made of the decision taken by the soon-to-be former Barcelona coach, Stramaccioni replied, "I don’t really know the situation well enough to pass judgement on Guardiola’s decision, it’s such a high-profile position and it’s always hard to judge the choices others make anyway. But the president’s words give me strength and make me even more determined than I am already, and that goes for the whole group. I think Inter are united and the Udinese game was proof of that. Now we must think about finishing the season without making any promises or calculations. Let’s just make sure we finish the season in true Inter style."

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