Inter Milan News

Inter forward Antonio Cassano has hailed the signing of Mateo Kovacic and believes the youngster will prove a valuable addition to the club.

The 18-year-old signed for the Nerazzurri from Dinamo Zagreb on deadline day for a fee believed to be in the region of €11 million.

And the former Milan striker believes Kovacic will soon prove to be a shrewd acquisition.

“I saw him in the first training session, and you can tell he’s got great ability,” the 30-year-old told the club’s official website.

“Inter have spent big and spent well on him – he’s going to be here for the next 10 years.

“He’ll become a great player, I’m 100 per cent sure of that.”

Meanwhile, Cassano also addressed the comparisons being made between him and Milan’s Mario Balotelli and believes the latter’s propensity to attract the media spotlight is among the distinctions.

He added: “There’s one difference between Mario and I – he probably likes being in the paper, whereas I don’t.

“But I’ve done worse things in my life. I left training, I drove my car onto the pitch – you name it, I did it.

“He’s a good lad though.”

APPIANO GENTILE – Here’s the second half of the interview Antonio Cassano gave to Sky Sport Italia.

Clear this one up for us: did Andrea Stramaccioni do a good imitation of you in the tunnel at the derby or not?

“There he made me look… like a mug. But he’s a lovely bloke, a
great person, a coach who really knows what he’s doing. This is a tough
time but I think Inter and our fans should be very proud of our
president. Our president keeps us very calm, he’s unique, nothing like
all the other false people and phoneys you get in football – at big and
small clubs alike.”

You seem to already have a great understanding on the pitch with Mateo Kovacic. Is he really a big talent?

“I saw him in the first training session and he’s got great
ability. Inter have spent big and spent well on him, he’ll be here for
the next ten years. He’ll become a great player, I’m 100% sure of that.”

Have you heard from Balotelli?

“No.”

You’ve had quite similar careers, you’ve both played for big
clubs as well as for both Inter and AC Milan. At Balotelli’s age, who’d
made the headlines more for the wrong reasons, you or him?

“There’s one difference: he probably likes being in the papers,
whereas I don’t. But I did a lot worse. I left training sessions, I
drove my car onto the pitch, you name it, I did it. He’s a good lad.
Honestly, I know him well. I got up to more than my fair share of
‘Cass-antics’. I was kicked out of five clubs, imagine what I did to
deserve that.”

Does the derby scare you?

“Absolutely not. I’m sure my team-mates and I can get back to our
best this Sunday and go on an unbeaten run like we did in our first
meeting against them this season.”

Is Yuto Nagatomo the player who’s been on the receiving end of your jokes more than anyone else?

“Yuto makes me laugh. There’s always something I can say or do to
him, you ask him one thing and he replies with another. He always makes
me laugh, he’s a joker!”

Did you ever imagine that a ballboy wouldn’t give you the ball back. What went through your mind yesterday?

“Everything you can think of, but when I was a kid and Bari were
winning, I used to waste time too. So I need to accept it! But I was
about to lose it on Sunday… But he was just a kid, you could say ‘he
did well.'”

Do you have a farewell message for Wesley Sneijder?

“Absolutely. I’d like to wish him good luck but it’ll always be ‘Forza Inter.'”

How do you need to approach the Chievo game?

“We need to show what we’re about and the crowd will help us from
the first whistle to the last. We need to win on Sunday, one way or
another, and get back to winning ways.”

APPIANO GENTILE – Antonio Cassano spoke to Sky Sport Italia a day on from Siena v Inter. You can read it in full on inter.it. Here’s part one:

It shows character, the fact that you’ve chosen to speak to us after yesterday’s defeat, which also saw AC Milan move level with Inter thanks to a Mario Balotelli brace.

“It’s right to talk about it, there comes a time when you need to take responsibility. I don’t talk very often but now’s the time to do so. Everyone is making out that Inter are dead and buried, but we’re three points off the Champions League places, in the last 32 of the Europa League and still have the second leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final to play – we could still make the final. They’ve caught us up? This means they did very badly at the beginning, but no one mentioned it, while now everyone’s saying Inter are struggling. But hey, that’s fine. I accept that, I like this situation.”

Was the defeat at Siena Inter’s worst since you’ve been at the club?

“We’re not playing well at the moment, that’s the reality. We’ve brought in two or three quality players who can help but yesterday we played badly, and Siena deserved to win. We’re not playing well at the moment, we need to show great character to get back on track. We all need to give more, especially our best players.”

How do you get back to winning ways?

“I don’t know if there’s a formula. I’ve been playing for 15 years but I don’t know of a formula. I believe the people with character we have here need to give that bit extra and that everyone needs to follow them. That’s it.”

Do the forwards also need to put a bit more effort in?

“I hadn’t scored in three months. Diego got injured. Poor Rodrigo has played a lot of matches on his own because I’d come deep and he’d often be up there by himself, busting a gut. I don’t think it’s only an issue with the forward line or it’s the defence’s fault when we concede. There’s something wrong with the balance of the side and we need to try and find solutions to resolve this. I’m sure the coach knows better than us what we need to do to get through this.”

Now you need the squad to really help out the coach…

“I’ve been playing a long time and I’ve never seen a better team spirit than the one we have here. The lads are humble, champions who are always there to help the youngsters. This is a really special squad, I really like it. I didn’t even used to like Milan, but since I’ve been at Inter I’ve come to like the city: this shows how happy I am here. Obviously now we need to get out of this with classy players, with great individuals. And there are a lots of those here.”

MILAN – FC Internazionale would like to announce
that all accreditation requests from journalists, photographers and TV/radio representatives
for the match between Inter and AC Milan must be
sent to press@inter.it no later than 18:00 on Sunday 17 February 2013. The Serie A 2012/13 Week 26 match is to be played at the
Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on Sunday 24 February (kick-off 20:45 CET).

We would like to remind interested parties that:

– requests should
be sent on company-headed paper along with an identity document;

– requests for
accreditation will be assessed in accordance with
the number of places available at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza;

– requests sent via
fax will not be considered;

– requests sent
after the deadline will not be considered;

– the FC
Internazionale press office will notify any unsuccessful applicants via email,
by replying to the address through which the request was made;

– accreditation passes can be collected from gate number 8;

– accreditation requests should specify “Inter v AC Milan” in the subject line.

The headlines were inevitably written by one man and one man alone in Round 23 of Serie A, but it wasn’t only Mario Balotelli who turned in a performance worthy of credit. There were some other real standouts around Italy over the past weekend, with plenty of candidates sticking their hands up for a place in the latest Goal.com Team of the Week.

Sergio Romero proved a very effective last line of defence as Sampdoria earned a point from their trip to draw specialists Torino thanks to a couple of very important stops by their Argentine shot-stopper.

Juventus remained clear at the top of Serie A thanks to a 2-1 win at Chievo, with Stephan Lichtsteiner netting what would prove to be the decisive goal to cap a superb personal display from the wing-back position. Paolo Cannavaro‘s traumatic few weeks came to a magnificent end as he got on the scoresheet and kept Catania out at the other end in Napoli’s 2-0 win which keeps them hanging on to Juve’s coat-tails. Meanwhile, Andreas Granqvist was Genoa’s star man as the Grifone grabbed three massive points in their relegation fight to extend Lazio’s uncertain spell.

In midfield, Alessio Sestu ran Inter ragged and dispatched a fantastic curling strike beyond Samir Handanovic as Siena lifted themselves off the foot of the table with a huge three points. Mr Consistency Marek Hamsik makes it into our XI for the ninth time in just 23 rounds after another dominant showing at the head of Napoli’s midfield as Catania left the San Paolo without any points, while Belgian star Radja Nainggolan shone once again in the Cagliari midfield, and netted a goal to boot, as the Isolani ended the reign of Zdenek Zeman at Roma. Andrea Bertolacci was one of the men Genoa had to thank for their 3-2 win over Lazio, netting the second goal in a huge victory for Davide Ballardini’s side.

Up top, Innocent Emeghara marked only his second game in a Siena shirt with a goal in the Robur’s shock win over Inter, while Marco Sau was also on the scoresheet and proved a constant threat to the Roma back line in Cagliari’s big win at the Olimpico. But it is Super Mario Balotelli who gets the last word, turning in a magnificent two-goal showing on his return to Serie A. His first appearance in our Team of the Week this season may well not be his last.