Inter, towards the night of the Champions dream. Inzaghi: 'One step short, win for us and all the Nerazzurri people'

Munich - The faces, the looks. Those count, on the eve of a Champions Final. Not the words, which reverberate deafly and monotonously, an act of extreme courtesy on the part of those who will be the protagonists on the pitch, flooding with innocuous treacle the hours empty of events and full of thoughts that precede the appointment that is worth a life, no, but a career, yes, indeed.

Well, the faces we have seen here in the belly of the Allianz Arena on the Inter side seem to be the right ones. Those, that is, of those who approach the Holy Grail of European football 'not with obsession, but with the right determination', as Simone Inzaghi himself underlined. Yes, he himself, the leader of this four-year period full of many victories and a few but painful defeats, including two Scudettos and the Champions League two seasons ago, left to Manchester City on the night in Istanbul.

Future not written - 'My future? Now there is only the Champions League final, then we will talk about it with the club,' he immediately makes it clear, hinting that not everything can be taken for granted in order to plan a possible future still at arm's length. Let it be clear: the Nerazzurri people would sign off on a Mourinho-style farewell, with the coach leaving for other shores and the Cup remaining in the trophy cabinet. In short, 'The Champions League is worth an Inzaghi', even if the coach must be weighed down by the fact that a good part of these four years will be read under the sole light of the result that will accrue on the perfectly shaved lawn of the cathedral of Bavarian football.

We are Inter - 'how is this final different from the one in Istanbul? We made the most of our experience and the days that separated us from the bitter end of the championship to this match. We took care of and worked on the details, and we did the best we could, all of us, I'm sure,' Inzaghi stressed again. The rest - not a little, actually - is said by Lautaro Martinez and Nicolò Barella. Central concept? The 'We' whenever they talk about the team, the club, the technical staff, the Nerazzurri people. They trace the Cartesian axes of a family that stretches across footballing space-time, Martinez and Barella, and which will all find space in Munich, represented by the eleven on the pitch, the 18,000 in the stands, the 20,000 in the city hunting for a ticket, the 70,000 who will gather at the San Siro and all those scattered around the world but linked by air to a single Nerazzurri faith. "The key to the match? They are the best in Europe for ball possession, we will try to take the ball away from them, then," Inzaghi said again. The same words pronounced on the eve of the match with Barcelona. Translated: not defence and counter-attacking, but reasoned pressing to create those spaces in which to launch the various attackers inspired by the advanced direction of Lautaro himself. We will see if (this time too) it will work.

Beautiful and possible - This is how Luis Enrique has designed his Paris Saint Germain, without the super-figures of the recent past (Some names? Neymar, Messi, Mbappé....) but under the banner of technical cleanliness and boldness. In short, a Barcelona-like team that does not abdicate the defensive phase, organised around former Roma player Marquinhos, a prestigious migrant from our Serie A like Donnarumma, former Nerazzurri player Hakimi, former Parthenopean players Fabian Ruiz and Kvaratskhelia, the man of the two championships in just one year, having won half of the one for Napoli and the other half for Psg (who - by the way - is chasing his very personal seasonal Triplete).