Marotta: ‘Inter approve of rotation, Milan have an advantage for Scudetto’
Inter President Beppe Marotta backs the squad rotation for the Coppa Italia quarter-final with Torino and admits Milan have an ‘advantage’ in the Scudetto race.
It kicks off at the U-Power Stadium in Monza at 20.00 GMT (21.00 CET).
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.
The winners will be decided after 90 minutes or go directly to a penalty shoot-out, then go on to face either Napoli or Como in the semi-final.
It is played on neutral turf because San Siro is being prepared for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Marotta has faith in Inter squad
“Inter are obliged to aim for the maximum result in every tournament they enter,” Marotta told Sport Mediaset.
“Of course, going into this tour de force of games, Chivu is wisely rotating the squad at his disposal. We have a large squad, but one of great quality, so we share his choices and maintain the utmost respect for Torino.”
There were no real January signings for Inter, although they had seemed close in some cases to getting new players.
“It is a transfer window for teams to repair problems, and we did not require that, as we did such strong work over the summer. Chivu can also count on the players coming up from the youth academy, so it is satisfactory,” assured Marotta.
“We had that small issue of Dumfries, we don’t know exactly when he’ll be back, but we are all optimistic he’ll return soon. We have the players to cover the roles for all the competitions we are in.”
The Nerazzurri are top of the Serie A table and booked their place in the Champions League play-offs, but go into this game without injured Nicolò Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu and Denzel Dumfries.
Matteo Darmian was meant to get his first start of the season, but was instead ruled out by a stomach bug.
It means both Matteo Cocchi, who turned 19 on Sunday, and Issiaka Kamate get their full senior debuts for Inter.
Considering Inter have seven games to play in February, are Milan the main competitors for the Scudetto, aided also by their early Coppa Italia elimination?
“It is not just a duel with Milan, but all the teams in those top places, as they can all aim for the maximum result. Football is different to the past, so the fact Milan are the only ones in that group who have a single tournament to focus on, that is an advantage,” noted Marotta.
“We are accustomed to dealing with numerous games, we played 64 last season, reaching the Champions League Final and competing to the very end for the Scudetto. We mustn’t give in, we’ve got to fight hard with a physical and psychological stress that comes with this schedule.”
Inter fans have been barred from attending away fixtures until March 23 as punishment for the single 19-year-old supporter who threw a firework that struck Cremonese goalkeeper Emil Audero at the weekend.
“It was an extraordinarily awful and negative gesture that has nothing to do with the values of sport that we’ve been proposing since the youth academy. Unfortunately, some people are just delinquents, the club is helping the judicial process against this individual to protect the club and the fans who have very different values.
“We want to put this behind us, because the majority of Inter fans are absolutely not represented by this person,” added the Inter President.