Inter's old guard eye glory

Daily Tribune

3 days ago

AFP | Milan
Inter Milan might not be favourites for the Champions League final but their thrilling run to Saturday's showdown with Paris Saint-Germain has shown the ageing Italian outfit can mix it with the best.
Simone Inzaghi's team head to Munich with a legitimate shot at going one better than in Istanbul two years ago, when a very similar line-up was narrowly beaten by Manchester City.
Inzaghi felt the 2023 final was a missed opportunity after matching mega-rich City, whose budget dwarves that of Inter, a member of Europe's old guard battling to keep up with the continent's superclubs.
Qatari-owned PSG offer the opportunity for Inter to exorcise the ghost of Istanbul while also ending an enthralling season with the most prestigious piece of silverware in club football after missing out on domestic honours.
'The club and above all the players all know that we're missing that final step to make history,' Inzaghi told reporters on Monday.
'Obviously already having played the final helps you, but we also know that on the other side there are players who have won the World Cup and have played in other finals, as well as a coach who has already won the Champions League.'
Inter have already come through thrilling ties against Bayern Munich and Barcelona, two of the pre-season favourites to win the Champions League.
And their incredible semi-final with Barca showed they can go toe-to-toe with a high-pressing, youthful side despite having a squad stacked with players rapidly heading towards the end of their careers.
The average age of Inter's preferred starting XI is just over 30, while key players like goalkeeper Yann Sommer, twotime cancer survivor Francesco Acerbi and midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan are respectively 36, 37 and 36 years old.
Meanwhile the oldest player in the PSG squad now is Marquinhos, at 31 a relative youngster compared to fellow central defender Acerbi.
Old heads, tired legs
A draining season in which Inter battled for the Serie A title right down to the final day has had a clear impact on an old team, with the Barca tie the clear highlight of a tricky final few weeks of the campaign.
Inter looked capable of winning the treble after eliminating Bayern in the quarter-finals last month, with a handy three-point lead over Scudetto rivals Napoli and an Italian Cup semi-final against ailing AC Milan.
But the wind was whipped from their sails by three straight defeats in the space of a week which gave Napoli the initiative in Serie A and ended their domestic cup run, leaving the Champions League their only remaining option for a trophy.
'There was a lot of suffering among the players, it would be pointless to deny it,' said Inzaghi of losing the Serie A title.
'The boys have been brilliant this season because we've played 59 matches and we've given everything on the pitch. We didn't prioritise anything, we just tried to give everything that we had.'
Inzaghi has taken Inter to new heights since losing the 2023 final, even after a series of big-name departures and an enforced takeover of the club by US investment firm Oaktree this time last year after previous owners Suning defaulted on a debt of around 395 million euros ($449 million).
Unlike PSG, who can splash over 70 million euros to bring in Serie A's most exciting player in Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Inter have had to scrape the bargain bucket to stay competitive.
Sommer, who arrived for less than seven million euros in 2023 is one of just three players -- alongside Frenchmen Marcus Thuram and Benjamin Pavard -- in Inter's firstchoice line-up for Saturday not to be at the club two years ago.
'We've shown courage in every match of our Champions League campaign, and that's why we're in the final,' said Sommer on Monday.
'We have a lot of players who played in the final two years ago and that experience is important for us as a team.'