Candreva: “This team will fight right until the end”

MILAN - After winning the Derby and losing the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final, Inter now turn their focus to their next huge league engagement at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, where they face Lazio at 20:45 CET on Sunday. Antonio Candreva, a former Lazio player himself, spoke to Sky Sport ahead of the game: “We’re ready for the game against Lazio. We always train well and we’re building something special here. Ours is a path of growth with continuous improvements.

“Lazio are a strong team, they’ve been in good form for months. In general they’ve been getting good results for years now. It will be a big and exciting match, which we can’t wait to play. We’ll really go for it. I spent four and a half wonderful years at the Olimpico and I’m very fond of Lazio, they did a lot for me. I have great memories that I’ll cherish forever, but now we’re opponents and we’re going there to win.”

Inter are level with Juventus at the top of the table: “We deserve to stay where we are for the hard work we’ve been putting in since summer. We want to go as far as we can in every competition, right until the end of the season. But we’ve only got one philosophy, and that’s to take things game by game and prepare for each match as best we can.”

The defeat against Napoli means that the Nerazzurri need a win from the second leg: “Napoli defended well, we’ve struggled a bit this season when teams sit back with all eleven men behind the ball, there’s less space and fewer options. But we were still in the game despite all the energy we used in the Derby on Sunday. We’ve already put it to the backs of our minds, now we’re thinking about the second leg.”

A word on the Derby: “The Coach told us that we hadn’t been ourselves in the first half and that we had to show some pride on the pitch.”