Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni says the team are not afraid of Benfica, just as they were unafraid of facing Barcelona, Porto and Bayern Munich, The Nerazzurri face the Portuguese champions in the quarter-finals of this season’s Champions League, and ahead of tonight’s game (as quoted by SempreInter), Bastoni reiterated that he and his teammates will go into the match without trepidation, just as they did when qualifying from a group that included Barcelona and Bayern earlier this season:
“Benfica have great quality, but we don’t fear them any more than we feared Barcelona, Bayern, or Porto. We have to stay compact if we’re going to cause them problems.”
“Just as we always have, the entire team defends as a unit. The defensive phase begins with the forwards, defending is a matter for the entire team.
“We’re all aware that there’s a goal within reach that this team hasn’t managed to reach for twelve years.”
“It will be a very tense match, given how important it is, but it’s a football match and we have to face it with love for the sport.
“Serie and the CL? They’re two different competitions, but we always give 100%.”
“We’ve put in good performances in the league, but the results haven’t followed.”
“We’ve have never had the wrong attitude, we know that tomorrow is a great opportunity, we need to show cutting edge and determination.”
“It can certainly give us a big boost in morale for the run-in of the season, considering that we haven’t been getting what we’ve warranted in the league.”
“I’m very calm, I always go into football matches the same way, with calmness and focus.”
“My contract? I’m not distracted by contract talks, my agent is taking care of it with the club, there’s no problem there.”
“The poor form? I don’t think there are great explanations to give, we squandered several good chances.”
“Among ourselves we always analyze everything, and in this case we’ve come to the conclusion that we haven’t had the wrong attitude at all, so we go into this match with calmness.”
