Preview: Champions League, Barcelona v Inter Milan
The 3:1 first leg result is certainly in great favour of Mourinho's side. Will Messi's team have what it takes to overturn the goal difference and get the golden ticket to the Madrid Final?
Joseph Guardiola wants his players to have fun tonight. Despite the heavy defeat of the first leg, he calls his players to enjoy the game and push their limits if they want to reach the final.
"I don't know if we'll turn the tie around or not. We want to reach the final and we have a good enough team to do it, but we have never said this is a done deal. In Milan we scored the first goal and then stopped pushing for the second and we have to change that because we only have 90 minutes. We respect Inter a lot and we're not thinking about what we have accomplished before, only about winning the Champions League again. If we get to the final it'll be after playing a great match," said Guaardiola in yesterday's press conference.
On the other hand, the always-arrogant José Mourinho,said his team is supperior to Barcelona. Despite the fact thatthe 3:1 is greately in favour of his team, he is aware that they play in Barcelona against a very good team and he agrees that it is not impossible for Barcelona to turn the result around.
"I can't say it's my dream because I've won the Champions League before, but for Inter it's been over 40 years since they won the competition so it's a dream for them. It'll be a different match to the one in November, when Barcelona were superior to us in many ways. I also expect a different game to the first leg, too. Barcelona are still the great team they were in November and December but Inter have improved" Mourinho said.
The home team will have to do without Andrés Iniestaand Eric Abidal who are injured. Carles Puyol is also inavailable due to yellow cards. Gabriel Milito is going to be his replacement tonight. Another worry is Abidal's fitness so we shouldn't be surprised if he is not in the starting 11. Maxwell is very likley to start .
For Inter, Davide Santon and Francesco Toldo are definitely out since they are both injured. Alongside to them, Dejan Stanković who is suspended. What worries Mourinho the most is Wesley Sneijder's fitness who picked a minor injury in their Serie A game last Saturday (3:1 against Atalanta).
One would think that Inter will play conservative and keep their 3:1 lead. However, Inter are not that type of team. They travel to barcelona to seal their participation to the Champions League final. Considering that Barcelona will play openly to score as many as possible (the 3:1 is a score difficult to recover from) I believe that Inter will have spaces to make goal opportunities. However, having looked at the odds the 1.57 that the "over 2.5 goals" is offered does not eppear to be very tempting. Bookies are favouring Barcelona for this encounter, and this has pushed the odds for draw as the final result to 5.00! I believe it is worth risking a low stake on this, than putting big money on Barcelona or the over 2.5. Draw is what I am betting on tonight!