Vucinic: “Conte prepares for matches like no-one else”

Speaking as part of an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, former striker Mirko Vucinic gave his thoughts on Sunday’s match between Inter and Juventus. The 36-year-old spent three years at Juve under the tutelage of the current Nerazzurri Coach Antonio Conte.

What can you tell us about Inter-Juve?

“That it could be decisive, and it could give either side confidence for the season to come. It’s a bit like Juve-Milan in 2011, because Inter are more or less at the level of our Juve. Sarri, however, has a team that are much stronger than that Milan side were under Allegri, as he has two champions in each position.”

What is the advantage of having Conte in this kind of situation?

“Antonio works such a lot, the team follow his instructions and he prepares for matches like no-one else. We discussed everything that could happen and our opponents never put us in difficulty.”

Your favourite players from each team?

“[Miralem] Pjanic and [Stefano] Sensi. Pure technical quality.”

And [Cristiano] Ronaldo?

“It would have been wonderful to play with Ronaldo but now I am old. His will to be number one has always struck me, I have never witnessed this before, not even with [Gianluigi] Buffon and [Andrea] Pirlo.”