Inzaghi: "Exciting dery. It will be important to win again"

It's the eve of Inter v AC Milan. The derby di Milan will decide the Supercoppa Italiana in Riyadh. Kick-off is at 20:00 CET on Monday 6 January in a repeat of the final two years ago.

Simone Inzaghi, alongside Lautaro Martinez, spoke to the press in his pre-match press conference in Riyadh.

The last time you faced Conceição in the Champions League in 2023. It was a tight game, with some scares. What do you expect from AC Milan? "The derby is a special game, an exciting one. And there's a trophy up for grabs, which would be my 13th. You remember some great games: the one on 22 April, the one here in Riyadh two years ago, but also the most reecent one in the eague which we deserved to lose. We know we can't make those same msitakes. They have good players, so it's clear what we need to do." Have you spoken to Conceição after Porto vs. Inter? "No, but there have never been problems. I played with Sérgio for a long time at Lazio, winning together under Eriksson, who was a great manager and inspired a lot of his players to go into coaching." How have AC Milan changed? We know what Conceição is like as a coach. He likes to play direct and is a great organiser. His teams never give up; from that second half against Juventus, they deserved to go through." How important is Lautaro to the group? "Lautaro's importance is obvious: he wears the armband well. He was brilliant the other evening. I was a striker - not as good as him - and I know what it's like to be out of the goals. He was great against Atalanta; he didn't score but he did a lot of work. I see him every day and he's working really hard. What's important is that the team is winning and playing well. We know he'll give us a big hand from here until the end." There's the impression that Lautaro's teammates are trying to get him to score: could that be counterproductive? "I think that all of my teams have always tried to get the forwards to score. In reality, everyone scores here and we're trying to finish as many chances as possible. Our midfielders and defenders have also chipped in with a lot of goals. The important thing is to keep creating chances." How special is Riyadh, given you're here for the third time? "It would be great to win again, it would be our third in a row here in Riyadh and the fourth consecutive Supercoppa title. Since last year, it's become harder to win it because you have two games in four days. We know we're coming up against a good side, who will match our desire to win it." The fans' support has been constant, here in Riyadh as well. "It's great to have so many fans here in Saudi Arabia. They've always been brilliant. We'll give everything on the pitch, knowing it will be hard against a strong and organised side." On preparing for the game: will Thuram be a big absence? "We'll see how Thuram looks today; he will try to train. When we come back, we'll have six games in 18 days, so we'll assess it but we won't take any risks." Is there an AC Milan player to watch out for? "AC Milan have a lot of good players. We've studied their games but we'll just focus on ourselves. We analysed the derby earlier in the season as well as the game against Juventus; we'll need to control possession and manage the game well."