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UEFA Champions League 28 January 2025, 22:49

Adi Hütter: "To beat Inter, we have to play a fantastic match!"

Adi Hütter: "To beat Inter, we have to play a fantastic match!"
Eager to finish this phase of the Champions League well away to Inter Milan pitch on Wednesday evening (9 p.m.), the Monegasque coach spoke at a press conference on the eve of this duel.

Finish in the best way possible! Currently tenth in the Champions League, the Rouge et Blanc have already punched their ticket for the next round before this last trip to face Inter Milan (Wednesday, 21:00). On the eve of this Transalpine duel, Adi Hütter spoke in a pre-match press conference, expressing his desire to succed in this latest encounter. 🎙️

On the evolution of the table

Buona sera (good evening in Italian)! If you ask me if I plan to do calculations before the match, I would say no! But during the match, depending on the different results, maybe we will have to take them into consideration at the end of the day. On the other hand, before playing, it makes no sense for me to think about it. When you have a match here at the San Siro against Inter Milan in the Champions League, you have to give the best of what you have in yourself and not calculate.

First of all, I think it's great to see so many Ligue 1 teams able to qualify for the Top 8 or the play-offs. Having at least three teams in these play-offs is fantastic for French football! (...) It's a very positive sign for France in any case.
Adi HütterOn the French teams in the Champions League

Nobody knows what will happen in football, because with a lot of luck and an incredible performance, we can even finish in the Top 8. But to beat this team, we have to play a fantastic match! But the players are ready.

Four French teams in the knockouts?

First of all, I think it’s great to see so many Ligue 1 teams able to qualify for the Top 8 or the play-offs. Having at least three teams in these play-offs is fantastic for French football! Then, Paris Saint-Germain will have to make a big effort to be in the game as well.

It’s a very positive sign for France in any case. And for us personally, it’s a great achievement to be part of these play-offs, because it was one of our main goals of the season. Tomorrow we’ll see what we can achieve.

On playing in the “Italian style”

When I said last week in a humorous tone that the Italian teams were capable of playing for a draw, I mainly meant that these teams have top-level defenses. The idea of “catenaccio” was invented in Italy, which means that here they know how to keep a clean sheet, and it’s a compliment coming from me, because it’s not easy.

It’s obvious that I have another vision of football, and that is to do everything we can at all times to win the match, whatever the score. And then in my opinion, we won’t just be facing an Italian team tomorrow, but one of the best teams in Europe, and certainly one of the candidates to win the Champions League this season.

They are in really good form, and one of my former players at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Marcus Thuram, is having an extraordinary season, as is Yann Sommer, who I also knew there and who is a key player in this team.
Adi HütterAbout his former players

On Inter Milan

When you look at their Champions League run this year, they’ve scored eight goals and conceded just one in seven games. So they have a very good defence obviously, but they’ve also scored 55 league goals in 21 games, conceding 18, which is an incredible difference of +37!

They are in really good form, and one of my former players at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Marcus Thuram, is having an extraordinary season, as is Yann Sommer, who I also knew there and who is a key player in this team. We are going to face a great team tomorrow, who are difficult to beat, but we are here to show that we are also a good team, that we are courageous, and we will see what happens.

The victory against Aston Villa

The first thing is that we achieved our goal by beating this team, to qualify for the playoffs. It was not easy at the start, against a great opponent, one of the best of this campaign along with Inter. This gave the players a lot of confidence to win, to then continue in Ligue 1 against Stade Rennais (a 3-2 win), even if the score does not reflect the character of the game.

Tomorrow we will now face a completely different challenge with Inter Milan. We will have to be ready for this challenge and all pull in the same direction, because we want to give the best possible performance on the pitch and show our playing philosophy. We will have to be very competitive and give a lot, because this team is very, very strong at the moment.

On the Nerazzurri’s attacking qualities

I knew Henrikh Mkhitaryan when he was at Borussia Dortmund. He is a great player, 36 years old if I am not mistaken, so he is very experienced, and who is a bit of the heart of this team. But it makes no sense to talk about just one player regarding Inter’s attacking play, because they really have very good options, and we do not know which eleven we will have to face tomorrow.

At the beginning when I had him under my direction he was very young, could sometimes joke a little too much (smile). But now he is an experienced player, who has just had another exceptional match against Lecce this weekend.
Adi HütterOn Marcus Thuram

Maybe Simone Inzaghi needs to rotate, given that there is a big derby against AC Milan here this weekend. We will see what team we will face, but again Di Marco is a threat on the left, Darmian is a great player in the middle.

About the full-backs

Vanderson is in very good form at the moment as you said, even if last season he was sometimes injured. In any case, he is in great form at the moment. I am also happy to see that a player like Christian Mawissa can play in several positions in the defense, and that Krépin Diatta is back in the squad to give us several options.

We will see what choice we will make, because there is still a match soon thereafter against Auxerre in the league on Saturday. We will see what happens tomorrow, but we will be ready to show that we are a good team.

On Marcus Thuram

At the beginning when I had him under my orders he was very young, and could sometimes joke a little too much (smile). But now he is an experienced player, who has just had another exceptional match against Lecce this weekend. He had come from Guingamp when he arrived at Gladbach, where he played most of the time on the left in a 4-3-3, as he did at Gladbach afterwards with Marco Rose.

But I wanted to test him up front for my part, because he has the athletic qualities, he is very powerful, fast, very strong one-on-one. Today he is certainly one of the best players in his position, I like him a lot and I can’t wait to see  him again as well as Yann Sommer. Even if I hope they won’t be at their best against us.

It’s true that I played here almost 30 years ago in a UEFA Cup final with  Salzburg against Inter Milan in 1994. It was a memorable moment for me, and I’m glad you asked me to talk about it. It’s probably one of the best memories of my career!
Adi HütterOn his memories of Milan

His experience in Milan as a player

It’s true that I played here almost 30 years ago in a UEFA Cup final with  Salzburg against Inter Milan in 1994. It was a memorable moment for me, and I’m glad you asked me to talk about it. It’s probably one of the best memories of my career! We played a fantastic game, even if we lost the match 1-0 against a big team, with Walter Zenga, Giuseppe Bergomi, Nicola Berti, Dennis Bergkamp, ​​Rubén Sosa… great players!

We lost both games (home and away), even though we were better here in Milan. Then I came back as coach with Eintracht Frankfurt, but I was suspended and it was my assistant Christian Peintinger who led the team. We deserved our success (1-0), but today I am the coach of AS Monaco and I am happy to return with my team to this great stadium.

On Simone Inzaghi

He is one of the best coaches in Europe. He had some difficult moments here too, but the way he manages this team, I have to say I admire him, so congratulations to him! We faced each other when he was on the bench for Lazio in the group stage of the Europa League, I was in Frankfurt.

We had two fantastic games, winning 4-1 at home and then 2-1 in Rome, to finish top of the group with 18 points, which was a record in Germany. I like his style of play, what he does here in Milan. He is a top coach!