The Internazionale boss, Walter Mazzarri, has admitted that his team’s upcoming fixture versus Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk is going to be a difficult one, but, he is optimistic and believes that his team would manage to get over the line.
Mazzarri’s teams have historically had a hard time while playing against the clubs from Ukraine.
When the Italian was in charge of Sampdoria 5 years back, he saw defeat against Metalist Kharkiv. And, then, he saw another defeat during the 2012-13 Season. At that time, he was the manager of Napoli and the opposition side there was Dnipro.
So, it’s something which would be playing in Mazzarri’s mind when he leads the Inter boys into the arena later this week in Kiev.
In spite of the football betting markets saying this will be an easy game, Mazzarri is taking no chances. Speaking in the press conference ahead of flying to Ukraine, Mazzarri said, “These Ukrainian teams, they are never easy to play against. You can’t take them lightly. I have lost a couple of matches to them in the past. So, I know how good they can be.”
“As far as Dnipro is concerned, I think their players are physically very strong and they bring a lot of aggression in their game. But, I have always relished challenges. So, I am looking forward to the game. Hopefully, it’s a good one for us.”
The Internazionale players will be high on confidence having won their last Serie A match by a huge margin of 7-0 against Sassuolo.
The Nerazzurri had played a scoreless draw in their opening league game of the season against Torino.
Before that, they had crushed the Icelandic side Stjarnan by 3-0 and 6-0 in the two legs respectively in the playoff round of the Europa League. So, the season has been good for them till now.
The Dnipro Vs Inter match will begin at 19.00 Central European Summer Time on Thursday.