Simone Inzaghi has chance to confirm title as King of the Cups with Inter

T he bar for success has always been set impossibly high for Simone Inzaghi. His older brother, Filippo, was a prolific goalscorer who won a World Cup with Italy and two Champions Leagues at Milan. Fans renamed him even before those triumphs as “Superpippo”, a real-life comic book hero.

Filippo achieved things as a player few others have. He helped Lazio win one of two Serie A titles in the club’s history and was the second man to score four goals in a Champions League game. He believes only injuries stopped his sibling from surpassing him “because he had better technical gifts than I did”. Yet Simone, too, was defined by a nickname bestowed on him: “Inzaghino”, the “Little Inzaghi”.

Seven years into his management career, he has finally carved out his own brand. These days, Simone is the “Re di Coppe” – “King of the Cups”. At Lazio, he lifted the Coppa Italia once and the SuperCoppa Italiana twice. Since joining Inter in 2021, he has won both editions of those competitions and now steered his team into a Champions League final.

“Of course I like this reputation,” said Inzaghi on Monday. “I’ve had the fortune to work with important teams at Inter and Lazio, to have important players. In decisive games we’ve always managed to play well, to look after both phases – defence and attack – in the best way.”

That habit may have kept him in a job. As recently as two months ago, Italy’s sporting newspapers carried reports that he was close to the sack, Inter sliding to sixth in Serie A after collecting one point from five games.

Inzaghi made mistakes, but, as in his playing career, also found himself being held to unobtainable standards. The comparison this time was not to his brother, but to his Inter predecessor, Antonio