Inzaghi allows Inter to dream again after leading late-season revival

A month ago Inter Milan boss Simone Inzaghi's job seemed to be hanging by a thread amid a wretched run of form, but the Italian has masterminded a revival that has moved the club back into the top four while they have advanced to two major finals.

Inter's season nearly unravelled after a six-match winless run, which included three straight Serie A defeats that dropped them out of the top four having been second for several weeks.

A 3-3 draw in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals against Benfica allowed Inter to advance 5-3 on aggregate and that gave Inzaghi some breathing room, an opportunity to set things right.

Inzaghi had attempted to implement different tactics this season with a high press, a stark contrast to their title-winning season two years ago when a counter-attacking system was the norm.

But when that did not work after Inter conceded goals easily, Inzaghi reverted to type and stuck to their strengths - being compact and playing on the counter which helped them win games again.

The result was an eight-match winning run in all competitions this past month during which Inter came through a testing set of fixtures with a perfect record, beating Juventus, Lazio, AS Roma and arch rivals AC Milan twice.

Juve were knocked out in the Coppa Italia semi-finals while Milan did not even manage to score against Inter in four encounters this year, crashing out of the Champions League after Inter won their semi-final tie 3-0 on aggregate.

'WE ALWAYS BELIEVED'

The last time Milan lost four times to Inter in a season was in the 1973-74 campaign.

"We've faced AC Milan so many times, in the last few months we've played four derbies and won them all. They have great quality but the lads did very well and it's right