Simone Inzaghi has chance to confirm title as king of the cups with Inter

Coach has form in knockout games and is ready for Champions League final against ‘the best team in the world’

Inter Milan's head coach Simone Inzaghi waits the start of the press conference during a media day ahead of the Champions League soccer final, at the Suning training center, in Appiano Gentile, northern Italy. Pic:AP Photo/Antonio Calanni

The bar for success has always been set impossibly high for Simone Inzaghi. His older brother, Filippo, was a prolific goalscorer who won a World Cup with Italy and two Champions Leagues at Milan. Fans renamed him even before those triumphs as “Superpippo”, a real-life comic book hero.

But Simone also achieved things as a player few others have. He helped Lazio win one of two Serie A titles in the club’s history and was the second man to score four goals in a Champions League game. Filippo believes only injuries stopped his sibling from surpassing him “because he had better technical gifts than I did”. Yet Simone, too, was defined by a nickname bestowed on him: “Inzaghino”, the “Little Inzaghi”.