Coach Inzaghi: 'Guardiola divides modern football into two halves'
"I'm not good at giving percentages, but I know Inter will face the best club in the world, the team that won the Premier League five times in six seasons," TMW quoted Inzaghi on June 5. "Inter will have to play a great team with a coach who has marked a new era. Modern football is divided into two halves, with before and after Guardiola."
Guardiola began to resonate with tiki-taka, a style of play based on the ability to control the ball with a small bounce and technique. Thanks to this style, the Spanish coach helped Barca dominate Europe and bring dozens of titles between 2009-2019, culminating in the 2009 treble.
Later, Guardiola also made his mark at Bayern, turning the German club into a team that relied more on possession. At Man City, the 52-year-old coach helped the club dominate the domestic playground and reached the Champions League final twice. This season, he opened the trend to push full-backs into the middle and helped Man City towards a historic treble.
"There is a lot of admiration for Guardiola, for Man City, for what they have done over the years," continued Inzaghi. "In the semi-final against Real, I felt that Man City would reach the final, even though the first leg was even. Before the second leg, I told my wife and children that Man City would win."
Inzaghi denied that City were pressured by Man Utd's ambition to repeat the treble in the 1998-1999 season, and pointed out that Inter could also win three titles this season. The "Nerazzurri" finished third in Serie A, but beat Fiorentina 2-1 in the Italian Cup final and Milan 3-0 in the Italian Super Cup.
The Italian coach is proud to be with Inter through the difficult journey to the Champions League final, including going on to the "group of death" with Bayern, Barca and defeating the club and the city of Milan in both semi-finals. Inzaghi believes that Inter has players who can make a difference in the Champions League final, including striker Lautaro Martinez.
When asked if the big battle in Istanbul, Turkey on June 10 was the most important match of his career, Inzaghi replied: "Sure, and the same is true for the Inter players. That will be it. The evening pays off all our efforts throughout the year. It's been a journey full of pitfalls, but in the last three months, with more staff to rotate, I think Inter has done great things." .
The 47-year-old coach said that he had not decided on the starting lineup, when Inter still had four training sessions in Italy and a practice session to get used to the Ataturk stadium before the match day. Inzaghi also expects neutral fans in Türkiye to cheer for Inter because of the presence of midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu.
