Roma host Inter Milan in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final tomorrow looking to avenge defeat in the final of the competition at the hands of the Nerazzurri last season.
Inter will be trying to turn around their fortunes after the weekend defeat to Parma marked their fourth loss in their last five games, a run which has seen them eliminated from the UEFA Champions League and slip out of the Serie A title race.
Roma also lost their last league outing to dent their chances of reaching the European qualification places, so both teams will see the Coppa Italia as a welcome distraction, making it a big game according to Roma boss Vincenzo Montella.
"It'll be a really important match for a lot of reasons," he told a pre-match press conference. "First of all, it is a semi-final and we could win the trophy at the Olympic Stadium in front of our fans for the tenth time in the history of the club. Secondly, Roma and Inter are having, for different reasons, a very difficult moment because of recent results obtained in Serie A and in the Champions League."
Roma beat city rivals Lazio and nine-time cup winners Juventus to reach the last four, while Inter struggled to see off Genoa and squeezed past Napoli on penalties.
Club president Massimo Moratti claims the team have underperformed recently due to fatigue, but Montella feels the defending Serie A champions are still a fantastic team. "Inter has quality players and it's not necessary now for me to list their qualities because we all know that," he said. "They are more or less the same team of last year, the same that did so well in Italy and Europe."
Moratti told the club's official website he believes Inter's current slump will be hard to stop and that the players need a longer rest than they can be afforded due to the semi-final. "It's difficult to put the brakes on a situation like this but we hope that from now on we'll start doing things well again," he said. "Ideally we need a good week's rest but that's not possible because we have games to play on Tuesday."
Inter will be trying to turn around their fortunes after the weekend defeat to Parma marked their fourth loss in their last five games, a run which has seen them eliminated from the UEFA Champions League and slip out of the Serie A title race.Roma also lost their last league outing to dent their chances of reaching the European qualification places, so both teams will see the Coppa Italia as a welcome distraction, making it a big game according to Roma boss Vincenzo Montella.
"It'll be a really important match for a lot of reasons," he told a pre-match press conference. "First of all, it is a semi-final and we could win the trophy at the Olympic Stadium in front of our fans for the tenth time in the history of the club. Secondly, Roma and Inter are having, for different reasons, a very difficult moment because of recent results obtained in Serie A and in the Champions League."
Roma and Inter are having a very difficult moment because of recent results obtained in Serie A and in the Champions League.
Vincenzo Montella, Roma coach
Club president Massimo Moratti claims the team have underperformed recently due to fatigue, but Montella feels the defending Serie A champions are still a fantastic team. "Inter has quality players and it's not necessary now for me to list their qualities because we all know that," he said. "They are more or less the same team of last year, the same that did so well in Italy and Europe."
Moratti told the club's official website he believes Inter's current slump will be hard to stop and that the players need a longer rest than they can be afforded due to the semi-final. "It's difficult to put the brakes on a situation like this but we hope that from now on we'll start doing things well again," he said. "Ideally we need a good week's rest but that's not possible because we have games to play on Tuesday."
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