Inter Milan’s biggest worry ahead of their Champions League tie away to Young Boys is the artificial pitch at the Wankdorf Stadium, manager Simone Inzaghi said on Tuesday.
Serie A champions Inter, who have drawn at Manchester City and won at home to Red Star Belgrade in the competition this season, play the Swiss side on Wednesday, and have little time to get accustomed to the surface.
“I will have to make careful evaluations, the synthetic changes things, it is not the same and that’s why we will train here today, changing our habits,” Inzaghi told a press conference.
“We will have to get used to it in a short time, in the hour we will have on the pitch we will have to pay close attention.”
Inzaghi’s side take on a team which won the Swiss Championship last season but are struggling this term. Young Boys are 10th in the standings with two wins from 10 games, and have also lost both of their Champions League games.
Their poor results cost manager Patrick Rahmen his job earlier this month and brought the return of Joel Magnin as interim coach, a role he served last season when they won the title, and he is a longtime youth coach at the club.
“They won the league last year and have had some initial problems. It is a physical team, which has played in the cups for many years,” Inzaghi said.
“They are a structured team, with a new coach but who knows the environment, on Saturday against Luzern they played a good game. We will have to pay attention.”
Inzaghi has injury worries in midfield, with Kristjan Asllani missing Sunday’s victory over Roma, while Hakan Calhanoglu went off injured in that game, but Piotr Zielinski should be available after also missing the weekend win.
“Zielinski did a good part of training yesterday and the feelings are positive, I will have to evaluate,” the manager said.
“I was happy with what (Nicolo) Barella did in front of the defence on Sunday, tomorrow one of him and Zielinski will play there.
“Barella, (Henrikh) Mkhitaryan and (Davide) Frattesi have spent a lot (of energy). Frattesi will certainly play, then of the other three, two will start from the start and one will probably come on.”
