Chivu: ‘Inter victory not so easy, Lautaro Martinez needs to relax’

Cristian Chivu warns against Inter complacency against Kairat Almaty in the Champions League and reiterates advice for Lautaro Martinez to ‘relax’ some of his tension.

It kicks off at San Siro at 20.00 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Olympique Marseille vs. Atalanta on the Liveblog.

There is perhaps the risk of complacency in this fixture against the team from Kazakhstan, who earned their first point in the Champions League in a 0-0 draw against a Pafos side who were down to 10 men for 86 minutes.

“Don’t think it is so easy,” replied Chivu when Amazon Prime Video Italia asked if the objective was to win or score lots of goals to boost their goal difference.

“The objective is to put in a great performance, respect ourselves, the competition and our opponent, and do everything we can to win.”

There is some squad rotation, with Davide Frattesi, Carlos Augusto and Piotr Zielinski stepping in, but Lautaro Martinez starts anyway with Francesco Pio Esposito.

“Lautaro and Esposito are compatible. I had only three strikers for a month, so it is only right to rotate. Marcus Thuram is still not at 100 per cent, he might be able to play a few minutes today, while Bonny started against Verona.

“The captain is on the field because we need his spirit, he is a leader and his presence is very important.”

Chivu had said in his press conference that Lautaro Martinez needed to smile more, so how did the striker react?

“We did talk about it a little, he must not have too many thoughts weighing on him. He has to think about what he represents for this squad.

“He is a World Cup winner, he writes Inter history with every goal and more. He needs to relax, the goals will come,” assured Chivu.

The Nerazzurri are expected to keep their perfect record in the tournament so far, having won all three games without conceding a single goal.