The former Nerazzurri is sure: “I have the same vibrations as 15 years ago. Tomorrow the Inzaghi team will beat PSG. Why? Bayern, Barça and Thula: there are unequivocal signals”
Scus Pandev, tomorrow there is the Champions League final, how many days you haven’t slept in Inter in your opinion?
“So, make me do two accounts … I would say more or less since last Wednesday”.
“No, the opposite. Time is not really spent because you would like to take to the field immediately. Days, hours, everything proceeds too slowly compared to the desire to play and win the cup. For my Inter it went like this, I am sure that the same things today live them Lautaro and companions”.
His Inter, Goran Pandev’s Inter, is history: Milito’s brace at Bayern in the Bernabeu final, the Champions League reported on the Nerazzurri bulletin board 45 years after the last time, Triplete. , On May 22, 2010 Pandev, the son of Inter who in that triumphal season closed a circle that started with the Scudetto spring of 2002, was: 79 minutes to run up and down the band as Mourinho asked, then the wait from the bench to the final whistle and that cup so beautiful raised to heaven.
“Incredible. I started the season out pink at Lazio, and I was champion of Europe with Inter, the club that brought me to Italy and I owe everything. When I arrived in January I immediately understood that we could get to the top of Europe: we knew we were very strong. Sensations that grew up to the final. Mourinho took us to Madrid a couple of days before, our families were also clear, Bayern was a team lady but I felt that we would have won, it had never happened to me before and it didn’t happen to me later.
“Because this Inter has experience, quality, game, physical strength, an iron defense, a great coach. Because he has eliminated Barcelona in that way … in the semifinal, as in 2010, they are signals. And then because Lautaro has those eyes there …”.
“The same eyes of Zanetti 15 years ago. Javier was our captain, he had been at Inter for a lifetime, he had lived joys and disappointments and all this passed on you: he issued a particular electricity, just like Lautaro now. And as a former striker I say that he and Thuram are at the ideal” cooking point “, they will make a great ending”.
Was Zanetti the most tense on the eve?
“Yes, but I repeat, it was a positive tension. Then there were those who lived it in a decidedly more relaxed way like Eto’o, that a Champions League final had already played it. Here, the fact that many of Inzaghi’s players were on the field in Istanbul two years ago will help: they know what environment and what emotions await them”.
And what is waiting for them in the game?
“A team of quality, who plays a beautiful football as Luis Enrique plays. The PSG has very skilled men in one against one, I think of Hakimi. Even if the real danger is dembélé: he is doing a monstrous season. But the Inter behind has the right not to fear anyone. He stopped Haaland, Kane, Olise, he held up against Lamine Yamal”.
In an epic game that recalled your semifinal with the Barça di Messi. Was it the turning point?
“The first real turning point came to Stamford Bridge, 1-0 at Chelsea. There we understood that we would have been able to get to the bottom. With Barcelona we realized that we would win the Champions League. A bit like Simone and his now: with Bayern the key junction, but the push to beat the PSG gives it the 4-3 at Barça”.
What air does he pull among the triple teammates for tomorrow?
“We have a group on WhatsApp, in the last few days we often write to each other. Also Lucio, who has returned home (on May 16 he was hospitalized for burns after a domestic accident, editor’s note) and will cheer from Brazil. I and almost all the others will be at the Allianz Arena “.
His friend Inzaghi ended up in the sights of the Al-Hilal, ready to offer him a contract of a thousand and one night, and has admirers in half of Europe. How will it end?
“The offers come because with Inter is doing great things, the opposite would be strange. But I know Simone well, and I think he will remain in the Nerazzurri. Because he still has a lot to do and win, starting with the club world championship that will be played in June. President Marotta is right, his cycle at Inter is not yet finished”.
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