Joao Mario hails "important day for the Inter family"

APPIANO GENTILE - Joao Mario has spoken of his pride to be a Nerazzurri player after appearing at an event at Inter Store Milano on the day of the club's 109th birthday.

"This is an important day for the Inter family," the Portuguese midfielder told Mediaset Premium. "This is a great club and I'm happy to be part of the family. When you look at the history you can tell it's a special club, so I'm proud to be a part of it."

The Inter No.6 also looked ahead to Sunday's visit of Atalanta to the San Siro.

"We want to give the fans a good birthday present on Sunday," he said. "It's an important game and we want to win it. We know what we've achieved so far and we want to keep improving. Atalanta will be a tough opponent. We'll keep believing we can get third spot for as long as it's possible - we can't let Napoli and Roma leave us behind."

Joao Mario went on to reveal that team-mate Gabriel Barbosa - also appearing at the event - had stayed true to his word and treated the squad following his maiden goal against Bologna.

"Barbosa bought us dinner after the Bologna goal - he kept his promise," confirmed the Portuguese, who has adapted well to life in Serie A so far. "This is my first year in a very hard league, but there's always room for improvement as a player. We have to take the game by the scruff of the neck on Sunday - we're preparing well."

Last but not least, Joao Mario reiterated that Inter's objective remains Champions League qualification.

"Even though we know it's going to be hard, we want to qualify for the Champions League," he said. "There are still lots of matches left to be players and if we stick together we can do it. The boss gives great advice in training - he's doing fantastic work with us and we want to repay him by performing even better in the league."