Materazzi: Pressure all on Manchester City, now if Juventus penalised…

Marco Materazzi believes Inter can win the Champions League because ‘the pressure will all be’ on their opponents in the Final, while he gives Milan some reassurance with a quick slam on Juventus.

The Nerazzurri won the semi-final 3-0 on aggregate against their arch-rivals, following up the 2-0 first leg result with 1-0 last night decided by Lautaro Martinez.

Treble-winner Materazzi was in the Curva Nord to enjoy the experience along with his former teammate Wesley Sneijder. I had no doubts we would go through. There was a little tension at the start, but the only real attack was from Rafael Leao, Materazzi told MB5. I thought the referee was excellent, as he let the game flow. Inter were the best team and deserved to go through.

Simone Inzaghi’s side will play either Real Madrid or Manchester City in the Champions League Final in Istanbul on June 10. Now this will be fun, because the pressure will all be on the other side, probably even more so if it’s Manchester City, because Real Madrid are more accustomed to it. We need the perfect performance, making the most of the few situations we create to bring the trophy back to Milan.

Despite their recent domination of the Premier League, Manchester City have never managed to win the Champions League, losing the 2021 Final to Chelsea. If you keep eight clean sheets in the Champions League, that means you are mature to win that trophy, insisted Materazzi. We must go to Istanbul solid, happy to have achieved an objective that until recently was only a dream.

However, the World Cup winner does have some reassurance for his Milan cousins, largely so he can hammer their mutual rivals Juventus. We gave Milan a mental hammering and now it won’t be easy for them to get back into fourth place. Mind you, that is unless those who ought to be penalised are indeed penalised.

Juve were docked 15 Serie A points, which were restored on appeal pending a new verdict that will be delivered on May 22. It is reported the Bianconeri will be penalised by nine points for artificially inflating transfer fees to boost capital gains, which would push them down from second to sixth, bumping Milan up to fourth position.