Diego Forlan had an interview with Mediaset’s Marco Barzaghi at the training ground today

What went through your mind the other evening when the ball went in against Catania?

“For a striker, scoring is the best feeling you can get and in this case it was a long time coming in what has been quite a difficult year, because of my injury and because the team has been struggling. It was a tough match, we were determined to do everything possible in the second half to get ourselves level and maybe win it. In the end we couldn’t quite manage it.”

So that goal was liberating for you…

“It was a bit, yes. But I couldn’t enjoy it fully because at the time we were still behind and we had to immediately pick the ball up and go looking for an equaliser.”

Did you expect to have such a difficult start when you joined Inter?

“This difficult, no. But it’s not the first time in my career that I’ve been in a team going through a spell like this. I’ve played for different clubs and there have always been good times and not so good times. The players must know how to get out of situations like this: you have to work patiently and in this group we have the quality to change things.”

We saw you training twice a day sometimes to get back into shape. Do you feel you have something to repay considering that you wear the number 9 shirt?

“I do feel a bit as if I have something to repay. But I’m on my way back now, I’ve played a few games in a row and I feel good. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up: playing and scoring to win the games that we’re so determined to win.”

Could your goal the other night mark the start of something new for Inter too?

“Not only the goal but the whole second half. The team was in a tight spot, also given the mood in the stadium, even though we’d started well in the first 15 minutes. We found courage and pride after lots of games in which things hadn’t been going for us, we turned things around and almost won the match. I think that can be the key moment.”

Lots of your team-mates have explained that your pride was shaken up by Julio Cesar’s half-time team talk…

“He made a great speech in front of us all: there are players here who have spent many years at Inter, better and worse moments than now. He said what all the experienced players of the dressing room were thinking at the time.”

What did you make of the boos when Esteban Cambiasso was substituted off? Was it perhaps a bit ungrateful after everything he has given Inter…

“As players we mustn’t pay too much attention to what people say. You get these moments in football and the boos weren’t only for him but also for me and the other players. It’s normal when you’re going through a bad moment and you’re not happy with the way the team is playing. People come to the stadium to see their team win and if they want to boo because they aren’t happy they are free to do so. We have to keep working as we always have, and improving because we’ve gone a while without winning a game. The experience that he and other team-mates have got will make him work even harder to help the team win the next matches.”

On Friday you take on Chievo and then you have to turn around the 1-0 scoreline from the first leg in the Champions League against Marseille.

“Before the Champions League we have the Chievo fixture. We have to go there and we know it will be a tough game. So first of all we must try to do well on Friday in Verona, because it could help lift our confidence ahead of the game against Marseille.”

Are you convinced that Inter can overturn the Champions League result?

“Yes. Every time I play I’m convinced we can win. Then of course you can get all sorts of results but the aim is always to win. We know they are a good team and they hold a one-goal lead after the first leg. We’ll have to be careful because they are a dangerous side. We must do better and more to win.”

What do you expect from the future?

“I have two years here and I’m very happy at Inter. For now let’s try to finish the season well and get back to winning as soon as possible.”

Inter Legend Sandro Mazzola has spoken out about the rumours that Andre Villas-Boas will be the immediate replacement for Claudio Ranieri. Mazzola who played 417 times for the Nerzzurri over 17 years thinks he is the wrong man for his beloved team.

“He has just been sacked at Chelsea and there must be a reason, right? I do not think he can make a difference,” he told Tuttomercatoweb.

“He is very young, he earns a lot, perhaps his agents are good, but personally I would not take him.

“I hope that Ranieri stays until the end of the season, it would mean that Inter would have recovered.”

UEFA Cup win 1991 celebrated by Klinsmann and Brehme

When Cambiasso was substituted for Andrea Poli in the 2-2 draw with Catania, the Argentinian burst into tears on the bench. He had he heard the crown cheering after his removal. Javier Zanetti stood up for his countryman in turn attacking Ranieri 

“You’d have to ask the Coach whether it was the right decision to replace someone who has won so much. If Ranieri makes his choices, there must be a reason,” replied Zanetti.

“Clearly everyone can have difficult moments and I don’t think us ‘Senators’ of the team are responsible. I won’t stand for that, as in my career nobody has gifted me anything. Then people can judge whatever way they see fit.

“We have to understand the mood of the fans and unfortunately we have lost many games. At the final whistle I thanked the supporters, because they were very important in encouraging us.”

Giuseppe “Peppino” Meazza is widely considered to have been one of Italy’s greatest ever footballers, who throughout three decades dazzled and amazed countless numbers of fans with his superb natural skill and deadly finishing. He is remembered with the greatest affection at Inter where his career saw him tally 361 games in which he scored an impressive 243 goals. His memory is immortalised in Milan as the stadium where both Inter and Milan ply their trade is named after him. It was not only at club level where he impressed as his national honours include 33 goals in 53 appearances plus two World Cup victories.

The cocktail that made Giuseppe Meazza so special was best summed up in La Gazzetta dello Sport the day after his debut when they described him as “intelligent, fresh and quick”. He was a natural ball player with sublime skill, who was as mentally in tune with the game as he was physically. However, it was his dribbling ability that he was most revered for, turning defenders inside and out, riding tackles made by defenders who would not think twice about going through him, and shimmying or dummying the goalkeepers who at the time had seen nothing like him before. This brought about nicknames for his style of play due to its popularity - “gol alla Meazza” and “finte alla Meazza” are common sayings for describing goals that involve supreme skill, dummies, fakes and audacious pieces of trickery. The great journalists of the time compared his ability to that of the South Americans claiming no other Italian of the time had such technique and ability to do what Meazza did with the ball.

(Read more at) 

http://www.footballitaliano.co.uk/p6_66_1201_lessons-in-calcio-giuseppe-meazza.html

Ranieri spoke out about the Nerazzurri’s 2-2 draw with Catania:  “It was an important response, Finally we got a goal and now we have to continue to fight, but this is a squad that never gives up. We looked at each other in the dressing room, it was a really troublesome moment, but these champions knew how to react. We are united and we have to get out of this situation all together, as usual. Unfortunately there still remains the problem that at the first scare we seem less determined. Tonight we started well, but we went behind on the first counterattack and then we became scared and got in difficulty”

Milito celebrates his late equaliser to save Inter from defeat

Flares for the 5th goal? Why not, how about setting off a few fireworks as well

PPPPPAAAAAAAZZZZZOOOOO!!!!

What will it be like at the Derby, should have stayed another week

This man was not to be crossed