After four easier matches, finished with as many victories, Cristian Chivu (45 years old) has a tough exam today, from 22:00, with Atletico Madrid, on Iberian soil, in the 5th stage of the single group stage of the Champions League of football.
Cristian Chivu won the Champions League as a player with Inter Milan in 2010
The Spanish team is trained by Diego Simeone (55 years old), a former student of Mircea Lucescu (80 years old) from Pisa. The Argentine also played for Inter. “I feel neither inferior nor superior to Simeone“, commented the resident from Resisi about the comparison with the South American technician, who won the title in Spain and reached the final of the Champions League (however, he has the Europa League in his record, won in 2012 at the “Arena Națională” in Bucharest). Chivu only has a few months of training behind him.
Before the game at “Metropolitano”, Cristian Chivu is convinced that the players have overcome the disappointment experienced in the local derby with AC Milan (0-1). “The beauty of football is that it always gives you revenge. Sometimes the result may seem unfair“, he explained in the pre-match press conference, “but I look at the glass half full, because for me it was three-quarters full. It wasn’t enough to beat Milan, simply because of a lack of luck and concentration. But I want the team to continue to show the good things we have seen recently: the improvement is obvious. On Sunday, we were solid, much more so than against Roma when we won“.
“I want to emulate his career”
With 12 points from four matches, Inter have almost secured a place in the play-offs, while Atletico have just 6 points: “Some think we only faced easy matches. But in a tournament like this, there are no easy opponents. Now we want to continue our journey, in this beautiful and warm stadium, to ensure our qualification. It will be a similar match to the Milan derby, as Atletico are organised, intense and will start strongly. We will have to be focusedand”.
About Simeone, who confessed that he sees himself on Inter’s bench one day, Chivu says: “I have always admired him as a player and as a character. I saw him recently in the friendly in Libya and was glad to hear his very flattering words about me. As for me, I have some experience in football and I would like to emulate his career. But, I feel neither inferior nor superior“.
