Inter coach Antonio Conte has confirms Stefano Sensi won’t be back against Bologna and wants ‘continuity to our path’ after back-to-back wins.
The Nerazzurri arrive after two good performances against Sassuolo in Serie A and Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Champions League.
Conte said the Inter players kept their heads down and ignored the recent criticism to focus on the performance in the 3-2 win over Gladbach on Tuesday.
“We covered our ears and thought only about playing and to do our best,” Conte said at a press conference.
“Fatigue is inevitable. We played four games in 11 days, now we have one more day to recover.
“We must play all important and decisive games with very little time to prepare for them and to recover energy. That’s the difficulty.”
Bologna beat Inter 2-1 at San Siro in July and Conte angrily recalls the defeat that was decisive in the Scudetto battle with Juventus, but he expects another tough game against a ‘prepared’ side.
“Last year we lost an incredible match against Bologna. We were winning 1-0 and dominated the match, then we missed a penalty and conceded two goals from counterattacks in 10 against 11.
“That game made me very angry. Bologna are a strong and determined team, they play at good pace and have prepared for the match over a week.
“Against Inter, the level of attentiveness increases, we want to give continuity to our path.”
The Nerazzurri have struggled to keep a clean sheet and often trail their opponents at San Siro.
“If the statistics say this, we must be better. It’s difficult to talk about home and away at this time. There are no fans and the environment can’t give or take anything from you.
“But we will try to improve from this point of view too.”
Conte then confirmed Radja Nainggolan and Stefano Sensi are still out and stressed he expects Nicolò Barella to ‘improve’ further.
“Nainggolan has not recovered yet and is not available for the match against Bologna,” said.
“Sensi is not ready yet, either. Barella can and still has to improve. It’s good that he has room for improvement and that he knows where to work and to improve.
“He can do very well because he’s very young. By remaining humble and down to earth, he has important margins.”
The Beneamata coach underlined it’s important to be physically fresh for the important games ahead.
“We have to be good at calibrating the moments in which we can work. It’s difficult to do physical work when you play every three days.
“But we hope to play every three days because it would mean we advance in competitions."