Question: Let us start with your thoughts about your team's performance during the first leg? What emotions did it evoke?
Chris Simmons (Liverpool): I was ecstatic. I know Europe’s different to domestic football but I really thought we were going to be picked apart after the shambles against Barnsley. But we were fantastic right from the start, got a great win and didn’t concede!
Martino Olmeda (Inter): I think it’s difficult to judge the team effectively, as the game was clearly influenced by Marco Materazzi’s undeserved sending off in the first half. Both yellow cards were flukes. It was obvious that Liverpool would have the upper hand after that. But before the goal, which came only ten minutes before the end thanks to a lucky deflection, they hadn’t created much real danger and we defended very well.
Still, we were a little too cautious at the start of the game and we looked nervous. In the end, I felt the 2-0 defeat was too harsh and Steven Gerrard’s (brilliant) second goal was a really hard blow. With 1-0 we would have all to play for, but now it’s very very tough.
Question: Were you lucky, or did you deserve more from the game?
CS: No, we definitely deserved that win, no doubt. The goals were late but I think we merited them. We could have had a penalty for handball, too, but I think the ref was trying to even things out after the harsh red card.
MO: I think a 1-0 defeat would have been more right. The second goal was simply a great individual effort by Gerrard - there was no team merit. We were definitely unlucky on the night, even though our approach to the match was a little too cautious and timid.
Question: Where does that result leave you heading into the second leg? Any reason to lose sleep?
CS: We’re firmly in the driving seat: the only thing I fear is our own complacency. Against Barcelona last year we won the first leg but rather sat back at Anfield and let them take a 1-0 lead – we were really hanging on at the end. I hope this time we make it easier on ourselves.
MO: It will take a monumental performance for us to qualify. But remember, we already managed a similar feat against Liverpool in 1965, the year we won our last European Cup. We lost 3-1 at Anfield, but beat them 3-0 at San Siro. That exact same result would be enough to put us through again this time. It would be a really amazing thing if we could repeat that kind of result just days after our centenary. It would also prove that, in football, history has a way of repeating itself.
Question: What about your opponents? What did you think about their performance?
CS: Pleasantly disappointing. I’m sure they’ll blame the ref for the Materazzi incident but in truth they never looked like scoring even with 11 men. They defended very well, considering, but none of the big attacking threats showed up.
MO: I think Liverpool are overrated. They work very hard and are defensively very strong, but without Gerrard, their only world-class player, I think they would lose 50% of their strength. They did not impress me in the first leg either. With ten men we kept them at bay quite easily before Dirk Kuyt’s lucky opening goal, which came in the 83rd minute I think. In the 2005 final Milan gave them a football lesson and showed the world that Liverpool are no great shakes. I hope we can do a similar thing on Tuesday night.
Question: How has your opinion of them changed after the game, if at all?
CS: Not much. You can’t judge any team on one game and their Serie A record speaks for itself. They’ll be tougher to play against at San Siro.
MO: See my last answer. I watched the game, so I don’t judge just the result, and my opinion of them as an average, hard working team that depends on one player hasn’t changed.
Question: Coming ahead to the second leg, where do you think it will be won or lost now?
CS: We need to be calm and not let the atmosphere in Milan get to us. If we concede early we could be in trouble so we need to soak up the pressure and try and nab an away goal. I think how our centre-halves handle Ibrahimovic and Cruz will be key.
MO: Definitely in defence. If we concede a goal, it’s practically over (although, even if we did, I would still not give up hope). Meanwhile, we’ll have to hope their defence will be slightly complacent or distracted, although it’s unlikely, because we need to score at least twice to take the game into extra time, and then anything can happen. Unfortunately, Liverpool’s biggest strength usually is in the defensive side of the game.
Question: Did you see any weakness in your opponents that your team can exploit better?
CS: Materazzi’s suspended, obviously, and apart from him Inter aren’t very tall at the back. Their defence didn’t know what to do with Crouch when he came off the bench at Anfield so maybe he should start the second leg. Nobody will get near him at corners or free-kicks.
MO: They are not that impressive going forward, especially if we manage to contain Gerrard effectively. Fernando Torres may be in form, but if he doesn’t receive good service he is lost.
Question: Which opposition player did your team struggle against the most? How can you do better against him?
CS: Julio Cesar – the guy is immense and it took a deflection off Kuyt’s shot and a very special Gerrard strike to beat him. I guess it’s just a case of picking the spots he can’t reach. We’ve hit 13 goals in four games since the first leg, though, so our confidence is high.
MO: Obviously Gerrard, who is almost like what Maradona was for Napoli. Especially now that he’s playing as a ‘trequartista’, or playmaker behind the striker, he is lethal and showed that in the first leg, too. There’s not an attacking move by Liverpool that he wasn’t involved in. The only way to stop him could be to man-mark him, but I don’t think any team in the world does that anymore. But we will definitely keep a close eye on him.
Question: Any other areas you need to polish up?
CS: We’ve had a few lapses in concentration at the back in recent weeks, especially against Middlesbrough. We can’t afford to gift Inter anything so everyone needs to stay alert at set pieces.
MO: Definitely we were very poor going forward, I think their goalkeeper didn’t even make a save and we had one corner throughout the whole game. But now at San Siro with a big crowd cheering us on, I’m sure we will do much better in that area.
Question: Who from your team do we keep an eye on here?
CS: Obviously Gerrard and Torres are the two big stars, but I expect us to be on the back foot for large parts of the second leg and a top performance from Jamie Carragher will be crucial. And if he makes it Javier Mascherano will also be important.
MO: Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a good game against Reggina this weekend on his return from injury, and I think he will definitely cause some trouble for the Liverpool defence. In the first leg he was invisible, but he knows that if he steps up to the challenge in this game and manages to score a couple of goals or give some crucial assists, people’s opinion of him will improve hugely. Internationally, he is not as appreciated as he is in Italy as he often screws up in big games, so I hope he is eager to change that.
Question: Going back to your opponents, anyone from their team you would want on your side in the future, based on what you saw?
CS: Julio Cesar is an excellent keeper but I’m more than happy with Reina, thanks. I was impressed by Ivan Cordoba – he’d fit in well at Liverpool I’m sure, but he's 31 and we should be looking towards the future.
MO: The only player of theirs I would like at Inter is Gerrard, but he is a one club man like Francesco Totti or Alex Del Piero I think. I don’t think he will ever leave Liverpool.
Question: Anything particular lingering on from the the first leg which could affect the upcoming clash?
CS: Not from our side but I’m sure they’ll feel they have a few scores to settle. We have to make sure we don’t let ourselves get dragged into arguments and scuffles.
MO: Obviously Materazzi will be suspended, which is a big loss, and also Ivan Cordoba got injured during that game. I think especially Materazzi’s absence will be strongly felt. Say what you will of him, but he is a towering presence in defence and one of the best central defenders in Serie A. He is also one of the team’s leaders and he always adds that extra bit of determination and sharpness to the team in difficult moments.
Question: What could be the ramifications for your club should you fail to go through?
CS: Pretty big, I’d say. Because the last 16 isn’t even close to winning it and we won’t be lifting any other trophies this season, for sure. I think the ramifications are also a lot worse for us than for Inter simply because we’re already 2-0 up and a lot of people have already written them off. Throwing away a lead of that size would really damage confidence.
MO: Certainly it will be no surprise to anyone if we don’t qualify, so I don’t believe it will affect the Scudetto race. With all the help we’ve been getting from referees, deliberate or not, if we don’t win the league we should only bury ourselves in the ground. But if I were Massimo Moratti, I would think about Roberto Mancini’s position. We know that this Inter side are the best in Italy at the moment, so winning the Scudetto and exiting the Champions League before the quarter finals is not enough anymore (although he isn’t quite sure of winning this year yet...).
The coach’s tendency to get nervous and start conducting strange experiments in big games is really worrying. In the Liverpool game, he should definitely have brought in David Suazo, who’s excellent in the counterattack and scored two goals the previous weekend. And in the recent league game against Roma, he played with just one striker, and made all his substitutions in the first 15 minutes of the second half, leaving us with ten men after Maxwell was injured. Only a lucky late goal by our captain Javier Zanetti rescued a point for us, but Mancini has a really irritating tendency to lose his cool in big games which cannot be ignored.
Question: What do you think the result of this game will be, and how will it affect your week?
CS: I can’t see us winning the match but we’re definitely capable of getting a draw and I’m pretty confident we’ll go through. Hopefully a nice early away goal will extinguish the atmosphere and alleviate the pressure on us. I’ll say 2-1 to them. How will it affect my week? Well like I said most people expect us to go through so the high of going through wouldn’t be anywhere near as big as the low if we went out. But I’d be thrilled if we could match Arsenal by winning at San Siro.
MO: To be honest, I don’t expect us to go through, and it would be a near miracle if we manage it. Still, this team is also known for its unpredictability and there are a number of factors which could work in our favor. As I mentioned before, there is a legendary precedent in our last game against Liverpool in 1965, which happens to be the last time we won the European Cup. Also, we celebrated our centenary only a few days ago and there are bound to be a number of Inter legends watching this game from the stands. This could also potentially be the night where we finally amaze the world and make that leap forward on the international stage as well.
We have shown before we are able to produce spectacular comebacks. It is not that unusual for us to come back from two goals down and win. If Liverpool have even the slightest bit of complacency, and if we manage to score early, the momentum will be with us and anything could happen. So I’m going to be optimistic and say we will win 3-0, with Ibrahimovic scoring from the spot, from a direct free kick, and Hernan Crespo scoring in between too.
Chris Simmons (Liverpool): I was ecstatic. I know Europe’s different to domestic football but I really thought we were going to be picked apart after the shambles against Barnsley. But we were fantastic right from the start, got a great win and didn’t concede!
Martino Olmeda (Inter): I think it’s difficult to judge the team effectively, as the game was clearly influenced by Marco Materazzi’s undeserved sending off in the first half. Both yellow cards were flukes. It was obvious that Liverpool would have the upper hand after that. But before the goal, which came only ten minutes before the end thanks to a lucky deflection, they hadn’t created much real danger and we defended very well.
Still, we were a little too cautious at the start of the game and we looked nervous. In the end, I felt the 2-0 defeat was too harsh and Steven Gerrard’s (brilliant) second goal was a really hard blow. With 1-0 we would have all to play for, but now it’s very very tough.
Question: Were you lucky, or did you deserve more from the game?
CS: No, we definitely deserved that win, no doubt. The goals were late but I think we merited them. We could have had a penalty for handball, too, but I think the ref was trying to even things out after the harsh red card.
MO: I think a 1-0 defeat would have been more right. The second goal was simply a great individual effort by Gerrard - there was no team merit. We were definitely unlucky on the night, even though our approach to the match was a little too cautious and timid.
Question: Where does that result leave you heading into the second leg? Any reason to lose sleep?
CS: We’re firmly in the driving seat: the only thing I fear is our own complacency. Against Barcelona last year we won the first leg but rather sat back at Anfield and let them take a 1-0 lead – we were really hanging on at the end. I hope this time we make it easier on ourselves.
MO: It will take a monumental performance for us to qualify. But remember, we already managed a similar feat against Liverpool in 1965, the year we won our last European Cup. We lost 3-1 at Anfield, but beat them 3-0 at San Siro. That exact same result would be enough to put us through again this time. It would be a really amazing thing if we could repeat that kind of result just days after our centenary. It would also prove that, in football, history has a way of repeating itself.
Question: What about your opponents? What did you think about their performance?
CS: Pleasantly disappointing. I’m sure they’ll blame the ref for the Materazzi incident but in truth they never looked like scoring even with 11 men. They defended very well, considering, but none of the big attacking threats showed up.
MO: I think Liverpool are overrated. They work very hard and are defensively very strong, but without Gerrard, their only world-class player, I think they would lose 50% of their strength. They did not impress me in the first leg either. With ten men we kept them at bay quite easily before Dirk Kuyt’s lucky opening goal, which came in the 83rd minute I think. In the 2005 final Milan gave them a football lesson and showed the world that Liverpool are no great shakes. I hope we can do a similar thing on Tuesday night.
Question: How has your opinion of them changed after the game, if at all?
CS: Not much. You can’t judge any team on one game and their Serie A record speaks for itself. They’ll be tougher to play against at San Siro.
MO: See my last answer. I watched the game, so I don’t judge just the result, and my opinion of them as an average, hard working team that depends on one player hasn’t changed.
Question: Coming ahead to the second leg, where do you think it will be won or lost now?
CS: We need to be calm and not let the atmosphere in Milan get to us. If we concede early we could be in trouble so we need to soak up the pressure and try and nab an away goal. I think how our centre-halves handle Ibrahimovic and Cruz will be key.
MO: Definitely in defence. If we concede a goal, it’s practically over (although, even if we did, I would still not give up hope). Meanwhile, we’ll have to hope their defence will be slightly complacent or distracted, although it’s unlikely, because we need to score at least twice to take the game into extra time, and then anything can happen. Unfortunately, Liverpool’s biggest strength usually is in the defensive side of the game.
Question: Did you see any weakness in your opponents that your team can exploit better?
CS: Materazzi’s suspended, obviously, and apart from him Inter aren’t very tall at the back. Their defence didn’t know what to do with Crouch when he came off the bench at Anfield so maybe he should start the second leg. Nobody will get near him at corners or free-kicks.
MO: They are not that impressive going forward, especially if we manage to contain Gerrard effectively. Fernando Torres may be in form, but if he doesn’t receive good service he is lost.
Question: Which opposition player did your team struggle against the most? How can you do better against him?
CS: Julio Cesar – the guy is immense and it took a deflection off Kuyt’s shot and a very special Gerrard strike to beat him. I guess it’s just a case of picking the spots he can’t reach. We’ve hit 13 goals in four games since the first leg, though, so our confidence is high.
MO: Obviously Gerrard, who is almost like what Maradona was for Napoli. Especially now that he’s playing as a ‘trequartista’, or playmaker behind the striker, he is lethal and showed that in the first leg, too. There’s not an attacking move by Liverpool that he wasn’t involved in. The only way to stop him could be to man-mark him, but I don’t think any team in the world does that anymore. But we will definitely keep a close eye on him.
Question: Any other areas you need to polish up?
CS: We’ve had a few lapses in concentration at the back in recent weeks, especially against Middlesbrough. We can’t afford to gift Inter anything so everyone needs to stay alert at set pieces.
MO: Definitely we were very poor going forward, I think their goalkeeper didn’t even make a save and we had one corner throughout the whole game. But now at San Siro with a big crowd cheering us on, I’m sure we will do much better in that area.
Question: Who from your team do we keep an eye on here?
CS: Obviously Gerrard and Torres are the two big stars, but I expect us to be on the back foot for large parts of the second leg and a top performance from Jamie Carragher will be crucial. And if he makes it Javier Mascherano will also be important.
MO: Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a good game against Reggina this weekend on his return from injury, and I think he will definitely cause some trouble for the Liverpool defence. In the first leg he was invisible, but he knows that if he steps up to the challenge in this game and manages to score a couple of goals or give some crucial assists, people’s opinion of him will improve hugely. Internationally, he is not as appreciated as he is in Italy as he often screws up in big games, so I hope he is eager to change that.
Question: Going back to your opponents, anyone from their team you would want on your side in the future, based on what you saw?
CS: Julio Cesar is an excellent keeper but I’m more than happy with Reina, thanks. I was impressed by Ivan Cordoba – he’d fit in well at Liverpool I’m sure, but he's 31 and we should be looking towards the future.
MO: The only player of theirs I would like at Inter is Gerrard, but he is a one club man like Francesco Totti or Alex Del Piero I think. I don’t think he will ever leave Liverpool.
Question: Anything particular lingering on from the the first leg which could affect the upcoming clash?
CS: Not from our side but I’m sure they’ll feel they have a few scores to settle. We have to make sure we don’t let ourselves get dragged into arguments and scuffles.
MO: Obviously Materazzi will be suspended, which is a big loss, and also Ivan Cordoba got injured during that game. I think especially Materazzi’s absence will be strongly felt. Say what you will of him, but he is a towering presence in defence and one of the best central defenders in Serie A. He is also one of the team’s leaders and he always adds that extra bit of determination and sharpness to the team in difficult moments.
Question: What could be the ramifications for your club should you fail to go through?
CS: Pretty big, I’d say. Because the last 16 isn’t even close to winning it and we won’t be lifting any other trophies this season, for sure. I think the ramifications are also a lot worse for us than for Inter simply because we’re already 2-0 up and a lot of people have already written them off. Throwing away a lead of that size would really damage confidence.
MO: Certainly it will be no surprise to anyone if we don’t qualify, so I don’t believe it will affect the Scudetto race. With all the help we’ve been getting from referees, deliberate or not, if we don’t win the league we should only bury ourselves in the ground. But if I were Massimo Moratti, I would think about Roberto Mancini’s position. We know that this Inter side are the best in Italy at the moment, so winning the Scudetto and exiting the Champions League before the quarter finals is not enough anymore (although he isn’t quite sure of winning this year yet...).
The coach’s tendency to get nervous and start conducting strange experiments in big games is really worrying. In the Liverpool game, he should definitely have brought in David Suazo, who’s excellent in the counterattack and scored two goals the previous weekend. And in the recent league game against Roma, he played with just one striker, and made all his substitutions in the first 15 minutes of the second half, leaving us with ten men after Maxwell was injured. Only a lucky late goal by our captain Javier Zanetti rescued a point for us, but Mancini has a really irritating tendency to lose his cool in big games which cannot be ignored.
Question: What do you think the result of this game will be, and how will it affect your week?
CS: I can’t see us winning the match but we’re definitely capable of getting a draw and I’m pretty confident we’ll go through. Hopefully a nice early away goal will extinguish the atmosphere and alleviate the pressure on us. I’ll say 2-1 to them. How will it affect my week? Well like I said most people expect us to go through so the high of going through wouldn’t be anywhere near as big as the low if we went out. But I’d be thrilled if we could match Arsenal by winning at San Siro.
MO: To be honest, I don’t expect us to go through, and it would be a near miracle if we manage it. Still, this team is also known for its unpredictability and there are a number of factors which could work in our favor. As I mentioned before, there is a legendary precedent in our last game against Liverpool in 1965, which happens to be the last time we won the European Cup. Also, we celebrated our centenary only a few days ago and there are bound to be a number of Inter legends watching this game from the stands. This could also potentially be the night where we finally amaze the world and make that leap forward on the international stage as well.
We have shown before we are able to produce spectacular comebacks. It is not that unusual for us to come back from two goals down and win. If Liverpool have even the slightest bit of complacency, and if we manage to score early, the momentum will be with us and anything could happen. So I’m going to be optimistic and say we will win 3-0, with Ibrahimovic scoring from the spot, from a direct free kick, and Hernan Crespo scoring in between too.
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