Spalletti: "Eleven matches to play at our best"

APPIANO GENTILE - An important match awaits Luciano Spalletti's Inter side against Sampdoria at Marassi for the lunchtime kick off of Serie A's 29th round of fixtures. "You qualify for the Champions League with matches like tomorrow's", said the Nerazzurri manager, "Sampdoria have strength, quality and play a modern style of football. They have a very well-prepared coach and backroom staff but we want to win. We need performances and points to achieve our objective, we can gain a lot from this match."

"I expect character, but the match against Napoli tested our qualities and showed us that in certain matches we are able to find the right ingredients to play big game football. It's essential to repeat it and demonstrate the same qualities again; it has to become a habit. We need to become a strong team and we are looking to put together all our best characteristics to get there; always approaching each match in the right way."

"Things have visibly changed over the last two matches, so I'm already expecting that tomorrow I will see more progress along this route. Our opponents will make life difficult for us but we need to have the strength to play eleven matches at a certain level. From now until the end of the season, we cannot play at anything less than our best, we can't make any more mistakes. We must keep our foot on the gas down the home straight."

The coach also commented on a couple of individual players, saying, "Perisic? He has exceptional, indisputable quality, but it is not easy to always play at his maximum level because every footballer, even the best, will have times when they can't make the most of their ability.  I would always want to have a player like Ivan in my team. I have faith in him as man and as a footballer. Dalbert? He's developing, he's training well and he's shown he can keep his head up in difficult times. For him it was a disadvantage to arrive just before the start of the season. He's a young kid and he hasn't had the chance to get to really know certain dynamics in the game. Nerves have meant that he hasn't been able to fully express himself up until now but it's an investment that will pay off.