Berlin (dpa/Stats Perform)
Simone Inzaghi, coach of the Italian football team Inter Milan, admitted that he had only dreamed in the past that his team would reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.
The draw for the group stage of the tournament placed the Inter team in the group, which was called the “Group of Death”, where it was found in one group accompanied by Bayern Munich and Barcelona, Spain, but it snatched the nomination paper for the elimination roles in the continental competition, after it came in second place in the championship standings, ahead of the Catalan team, which finished in third place.
Inter made its way to the golden square in the continental competition, which it won 3 times, after its 5/3 victory over Benfica, Portugal, in the two-legged aggregate of the quarter-finals, where it won 2/0 in the first leg in the Portuguese capital Lisbon last week, before drawing 3/3 in the first leg. The second leg, which took place at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium in Italy, on Wednesday evening. Inter set a semi-final date with arch-neighbor Milan for the first time in the Champions League since the 2002/2003 season, noting that it will be the first time that the two teams meet face to face 5 times during one season.
After the match, Inzaghi said: “I feel very happy. We played a great match against a difficult team.” “We deserve to go to the semi-finals, which was just a dream before,” Inzaghi added. I’m happy for the boys and our qualification. We started in a very difficult group with Barcelona and Bayern Munich. We work every day to experience these evenings.”
It seems that reaching the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since Inter won the title in the 2009-2010 season would relieve some of the pressure on Inzaghi, who was criticized for the team’s level in the Italian League this season.
Inter failed to achieve any victory during its last five meetings in the local competition, which saw it receive 4 defeats.
The Italian coach stressed that «critics are not a problem. I know where they come from. Some speak well, others speak badly.
For his part, Federico Dimarco, the Inter star, said to the “Amazon Prime” platform after the match: “We are very happy, it has been many years since Inter qualified for the semi-finals. There is still one step left to reach the final.
“We played well, regardless of the goals we conceded tonight. Assists, I worked all week for this, the important thing is that the team wins. Dimarco appeared wonderfully, after he provided two assists through which his teammates Lautaro Martinez and Joaquín Correa managed to score, and he also sent more than one elaborate cross pass, which posed a lot of danger to Benfica’s goal in the match.
When asked about the upcoming Milan confrontation, DiMarco replied: “Let’s think about the other matches first. I am calm, there is still one step for us to move towards the final.
It is noteworthy that the winner of the Milan-Inter confrontation will meet in the final, which will take place next June, with the winner of the other semi-final confrontation between Real Madrid, Spain and Manchester City, England.
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