press conference AHEAD OF MILAN EURODERBY

05-05-2003:

Nerazzurri striker Alvaro Recoba summed up the situation ahead of this week's Euroderby:

How are you all with just a few days to go until the Champions League semi-finals?
We're well. We mustn't make calculations.

Like Milan, you also began the season with the Champions League preliminaries. Are both sides feeling tired?
Perhaps we've already felt tired in a few matches. But now you play in a calm manner. There really are few matches left and you give everything you have. We're lucky in the sense that we've already played loads of matches in the Champions League . We've already played sixteen, basically one half of a championship.

How much will you be affected by the two championship derbies lost?
They won't count for anything. This is a different competition. A derby is always a derby and you always play to win. You never think about previous derbies, and now we're just focusing on these one hundred and eighty minutes.

A place in the Champions League final is up for grabs. Added to the historic rivalry between Inter and AC Milan, how much importance do these two derbies take on?
Few people have the luck of playing a derby with a Champions League final at stake. To be in the Champions League semi-finals is a great chance for us and we're aware how important these two matches are. You can't top playing matches like these.

Who's favourite to win?
Perhaps they are, and I'm saying this because they've reached the semi-final by perhaps playing a bit better throughout the cup. But in the derby the favourites are favourites until when you take to the pitch. When the referee starts the match it doesn't count who's favourite. Then we'll see who wins.

Question to Marco Materazzi:

If you had to bet on which of your team-mates will be decisive in the derby, who would you put your money on and why?
There's no doubt. I'd bet on Recoba because the talent of first-rate players like him really can make the difference. It would be the definitive coming of age for him and he would give us all a great help. Crespo could also be decisive. He's already done so much for the side, in the first rounds he was our driving force with his priceless goals. But I hope Chino's moment has come now.

[inter.it]