Inter Milan will be without suspended duo center-back Marco
Materazzi and midfielder Olivier Dacourt when they attempt to
reverse a 6-2 scoreline in Thursday's Italian Cup final second leg
with AS Roma.
Last week's first-leg humbling in Rome took some of the shine
off a fine season for Inter, who ran away with Serie A and broke
records galore.
Their chances of a second successive league and cup double and
third cup triumph in a row, all against Roma, look remote although
striker Julio Cruz is now back in full training after injury.
The champions will also have been buoyed by Sunday's 4-3 home
win over Rome's other team, Lazio. Inter were 2-0 down inside five
minutes but a hat-trick from Hernan Crespo and Materazzi's late
header helped them roar back to victory.
Materazzi said he was extremely disappointed to be missing the
second leg but hoped his team mates could put in the same kind of
performance as Sunday.
"It has been my greatest regret right since the 90th minute of
the first leg," Materazzi told the Inter Channel.
"We can't deny that we have come unstuck a bit, maybe
unconsciously. No one likes to put on a poor show. Now we hope we
have regained everything we will need against Roma on
Thursday."
Roma, already assured of second place in the league and a
Champions League spot next season, lost 1-0 at home to Torino on
Sunday after coach Luciano Spalletti rested some players before the
second leg.
However, he still included Francesco Totti despite the Roma
talisman having been up half the night because of the birth of his
second child.
Totti will have to regain his concentration for Thursday but it
is Roma's defenders who will probably be under the most pressure at
the San Siro as Inter chase a hatful of goals.
Like the first leg, Thursday's match will be played in the early
evening because of worries over crowd trouble.
The earlier kickoff time paid off last week when there was no
violence and television viewing figures were far higher than
normal.
(China Daily via Agencies May 16, 2007)