Inter coach Inzaghi under pressure ahead of Benfica match

MOUNTING PRESSURE: Inter Milan's head coach Simone Inzaghi. Pic: AP Photo/Armando Franca.

Winning the Champions League may be Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi’s only chance to keep his job.

Inter has had success this season, winning the Italian Super Cup and reaching the semifinals of the Italian Cup. And the team can reach the last four of the Champions League on Wednesday when it faces Benfica at San Siro in the second leg of the quarterfinals with a 2-0 lead from the first match.

But it’s in Serie A where Inter has been struggling, and Inzaghi is feeling the pressure because of it.

Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Monza was Inter’s 11th league defeat in 30 matches and left the team in fifth place in Serie A, two points behind fourth-place AC Milan.

“I don’t find it strange,” Inzaghi said of his situation on Tuesday. “I’m used to it. It’s better that they criticize me rather than my players. This criticism gives us the motivation to work even harder.

“We haven’t been good enough in the league. We haven’t had an ‘Inter’ season. Like other teams, we’ve had our issues, but there’s still time. We now need to focus on giving our fans a great evening that would see us go through to the quarterfinals. It would be a massive milestone.”

Inter has only won one of its past eight matches in all competitions — although that was last week’s victory at Benfica.

“We know what we’ve done in the cups and that our standings in the league table aren’t what we wanted but our only focus now is Benfica,” Inzaghi said. “We know that we have the lead but we’ll need to be at our best against a team that hasn’t been getting results lately but is still really dangerous.”

If Inter prevails against Benfica it will face an Italian team in the semifinals — either AC Milan and Napoli.

Benfica is also struggling. The two-time European champions have lost three in a row, a first for the club since the 2018-19 season. The poor streak has dented what had been a terrific season for Benfica, which had lost only once through the beginning of April in all competitions.

The first loss in this current streak was at home against Porto in the Portuguese league, then came the defeat against Inter, and on Saturday the team lost 1-0 at Chaves to see its league lead cut to four points.

For Wednesday’s match in Milan, Benfica coach Roger Schmidt will have central defender Nicolás Otamendi, who was suspended in the first leg.

The other teams in the quarterfinals are Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Chelsea.

Musician Noel Gallagher, a Manchester City fan, recently said he hoped the English team would face Inter in the final “because they aren’t very good” and Romelu “Lukaku is dreadful.” “He’s a great musician,” Inzaghi said. “Let’s hope he’s lucky, too, because Inter getting to the final would make us all happy.”

AP