Catania boss Walter Zenga is so tense about Sunday’s showdown with Roma that he’s lining up his own personal medical staff!
The Sicilians have the title and relegation races in their hands, as they need a victory to ensure safety and in so doing would hand the Scudetto to Inter.
“I asked the club if I could bring a doctor on to the bench just for me,” joked the Coach.
“I’ll be so tense that at the end of the game they’ll have to wheel me away on a stretcher! Since I came here I even started smoking again two years after quitting.”
It is particularly curious that Zenga should have this role, as he represented Inter as a goalkeeper for many years.
“I don’t look like Roberto Mancini, do I? I don’t have his hair or sweater. I want to talk about Catania and that is all, don’t ask me about Inter.
“People say Roma will come here and win comfortably, but I reply to them with the facts. Go watch all Catania’s games, even the one we lost at home to Reggina, as we have always played good football and scored goals.
“We were even leading away to Juventus until the 90th minute, but then straight after a substitution our defence didn’t have time to readjust and we conceded.”
Had Alessandro Del Piero not scored that equaliser for the 1-1 draw last Sunday, Catania would already have been mathematically safe and Parma doomed to the drop.
Instead two games will decide everything, as Inter come face to face with the Gialloblu at the Stadio Tardini.
“We must focus exclusively on ourselves, as the future is Catania, not Roma. I have never planned our campaign in terms of what the other teams were doing. Empoli and Parma need to win and hope we slip up to save themselves.
“However, we depend entirely upon our own result. The only way to celebrate is to beat Roma and not wait around for the other scorelines. Besides, it’s not necessarily the case that if Roma win in Sicily they have the Scudetto, as it depends on Parma and Inter.”
Just one point separates the two top teams going into the final weekend, so the Giallorossi need a victory and hope Inter fail to win at the Tardini.
If the two clubs finish level on points then the Nerazzurri celebrate due to their superior head-to-head record.
