"I've said it lots of times that this team is neither past it nor ill. They can have moments of fatigue, though, and they have all coincided with the league. Hopefully now that we have the Champions League we'll see the return of the champions and their pride." That's what Claudio Ranieri is expecting in Marseille v Inter, which kicks off at 20:45 at the Stade Vélodrome tomorrow.
"I had hoped to be coming into this match on the back of a different sort of run," the coach explained. "I knew I had to integrate quality players into the side and that would mean a certain amount of difficulty but I hoped we might be able to achieve it more quickly, carried on the wave of enthusiasm of good results. In any case, it's quite natural to get high and low points in a league season. It's happening to Inter but we're not alone; it's happening in Italy and abroad too: apart from Juventus and AC Milan there's a group of teams that are producing inconsistent results and performances."
Ranieri was asked about Diego Forlan, who was sat beside him in the pre-match press conference: "Forlan can play in lots of different positions even though he's a centre forward. He can do that because he's an intelligent player and he knows how to read the game and certain situations."