APPIANO GENTILE – "It was a very positive surprise to see Novara back in
Serie A. They deserved it. They are enthusiastic and they’ll be playing at home
for the first time since promotion, so it will be a tricky match for us."
So begins Gian Piero Gasperini at the press conference on the eve of Novara v
Inter, the Week 4 fixture of the 2011/12 season to be played tomorrow night at
the Stadio Silvio Piola. The match will be played on a synthetic pitch and the coach
admits: "I don’t really like a synthetic surface. In Serie A, however,
there is one at both Novara and Cesena. The ball moves at a different speed and
it’s necessary to adapt to it. Tomorrow morning we’ll give it a try, but it’s
not that we’ve never seen it… [smiling]. However, it’s not that after a half
hour it seems that you have always played on one."
Gasperini was then asked if it will be possible to see Giampaolo Pazzini
starting tomorrow: "That could be the case," replied the coach, who
was then asked about the conditions of certain players. "Sneijder, Chivu
and Stankovic? They could recover. It depends. We’ll see in the afternoon.
Maicon? He could start training with the team in the coming days."