Inter will go all-out to avenge defeat by Barcelona

REVENGE was the word on Héctor Cúper’s lips as the Internazionale FC coach spelt out the importance of tonight’s UEFA Champions League meeting with Group A leaders FC Barcelona at the San Siro.

Inter go into the game keen to reassert themselves in the section after last week's 3-0 defeat by the Catalan side left them looking over their shoulders at third-placed Newcastle United. "We played badly in Barcelona and that is a source of motivation," Cúper said. "This will be a different game." At Camp Nou, Barcelona extended their winning run in this season's competition to eleven games. Until recent weeks, this record had belied an indifferent domestic campaign yet Radomir Antic's arrival as coach has reinvigorated Barcelona. "They are in form. Once you hit the bottom, the only way is up," said Cúper. Indeed, Barça's "new momentum" has yielded successive victories against RCD Espanyol, Inter, and Real Betis Balompié.

Inter need the win more than the visitors do they trail the Blaugrana by three points, with Newcastle another three behind. Cúper's focus is on the job in hand, and he refused to let his press conference be hijacked by questions about the abuse given to Inter players Stéphane Dalmat and Domenico Morfeo by their own supporters during Sunday's 3-1 league success against Piacenza FC. "We are thinking about Wednesday, and I don't want to hear the players talking about anything other than Barça," he said. Cuper, though, will be without two key players through suspension Colombian defender Ivan Cordoba has a one-match ban while Uruguayan forward Alvaro Recoba begins his three-match suspension. Central defender Marco Materazzi has a muscle strain and is unlikely to be fit so Cuper will ask Paraguayan Carlos Alberto Gamarra to partner Fabio Cannavaro in the heart of the defence.