Inter's Ivan Perisic believes a loss won't knock Juventus out of the Scudetto, and reveals: 'They're not as imposing as Bayern Munich.'
The Croatian was among the new players selected for Coach Roberto Mancini to build his new Inter, and his most recent success includes qualifying his country for Euro 2016.
“I'm doing great, it was such a great joy,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Now I can concentrate exclusively on Inter.
Inter's Ivan Perisic believes a loss won't knock Juventus out of the Scudetto, and reveals: 'They're not as imposing as Bayern Munich.'
The Croatian was among the new players selected for Coach Roberto Mancini to build his new Inter, and his most recent success includes qualifying his country for Euro 2016.
“I'm doing great, it was such a great joy,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Now I can concentrate exclusively on Inter.
“As soon as I got to the Pinetina, I thanked [Andrea] Ranocchia and [Davide] Santon.
“I knew Italy was going to beat Norway. My country and yours deserved Euro 2016 more than their rivals.”
Perisic then went on to discuss the imminent clash against Juventus on Sunday.
“We're second, we're playing at home and we want to win at all costs.
“If we were to win we'd do a favour to all our rivals too.
“They wouldn't be knocked out of the Scudetto race though. There are still 30 games and they showed in the last few years that they were the best.
“Last summer I thought that three of their most important men were leaving [Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal, Carlos Tevez]. But they did pick up some other strong players.
“Let's hope it'll take them a little longer still to find their balance.
“Inter? It was their new project that attracted me. They lifted the Champions League cup five years ago, it's a club that made history.
“And we can take advantage of the fact that we're not playing the cups, which drain stamina from our opponents.
“Having the time to train together and know each other is essential in the new project. It's best to spend one year without cups and then get into the Champions League than to spend two years in the Europa League.
“If you'd told me we'd have 16 points after 7 games, I'd have taken that. I wouldn't take the final third place though, nor even the second.
“I was already second last season with Wolfsburg. I left Germany among other things because I understood that competing with Bayern was impossible.
“We were discussing an extension. For a few months they not only failed to sign the two, three men that would allow them to take a leap forwards in quality, they also lost some indispensable elements.
“When [Kevin] De Bruyne told me that he was leaving, that cleared every doubt.
“There is much more balance here, I see 7-8 teams capable of going all the way.”