Parma director Alessandro Lucarelli explains they ‘dropped points against teams we expected to beat’ and must find their mental strength with Inter.
It kicks off at 19.45 GMT, click here for the line-ups and LIVEBLOG.
“Inter are the best team in Serie A right now. They perhaps didn’t start that well, but have now poked their heads in front and deserve to be there,” Lucarelli told Sky Sport Italia.
Parma director Alessandro Lucarelli explains they ‘dropped points against teams we expected to beat’ and must find their mental strength with Inter.
It kicks off at 19.45 GMT, click here for the line-ups and LIVEBLOG.
“Inter are the best team in Serie A right now. They perhaps didn’t start that well, but have now poked their heads in front and deserve to be there,” Lucarelli told Sky Sport Italia.
The Ducali, on the other hand, are in penultimate place and without a victory in 15 Serie A rounds.
“The way out is trying to bring the best out of ourselves in every game. Of course, the psychological aspect isn’t the best right now, but we have to find that strength within the group to change the inertia of the season.
“If we remain in this situation, that is purely our own fault, so we have to do everything we can to turn it around and change what we can change.
“In the last game, we again showed that we put in the performance and take the lead, but struggle to keep hold of it. That’s happened four or five times this season, and if we had just held those leads, we’d be in a different position right now.
“Mental strength is the element we need to turn this around. We basically played all our bonuses and have to scrap for every point in every single remaining match.
“It won’t be easy tonight against the leaders, but we need to limit the errors as much as we can and try to make the most of every opportunity.”
For the last two games against Udinese and Spezia, Parma have gone 2-0 up only to draw 2-2.
“If we look at the goals that we conceded, most of them are individual errors, and those are difficult to work on in training. In my later years, I did more work with my voice than my legs, and I do feel there isn’t the right communication and determination on the pitch. The mental aspect is so important in these situations,” continued the former defender.
“Managing to get a result against Inter tonight would give us belief, confidence and the knowledge we can fight it out to the end. We’ve dropped points against teams we expected to beat and are now forced to chase points against Inter to make up for it.”
Parma had been 2-0 up at San Siro in October, eventually drawing 2-2 in another thriller.
“We made the most of our chances running into space, but then threw it away when we didn’t move in unison as defenders. Unfortunately, we’ve lost a lot of points this season from leading situations due to individual errors or at times a lack of determination caused by the fear of conceding goals.”