Yahoo Sports Inter Milan Star Warns Man City ‘Aren’t Just Erling Haaland’ Ahead Of Champions League Showdown
Inter Milan defender Stefan de Vrij feels that Man City “aren’t just Erling Haaland” ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League showdown.
The Dutchman spoke to Italian broadcaster SportMedsiaset, via FCInterNews, after the Nerazzurri’s 1-1 Serie A draw away to Monza. He also reacted to that disappointing result.
Inter take on Manchester City in the Champions League this week.
The Nerazzurri could hardly have gotten a tougher fixture to kick off their campaign in Europe’s top club competition.
The Cityzens are arguably Europe’s most formidable teams.
City have won all four of their Premier League matches so far, taking them top of the table. They have won the English top flight league title in each of the past four seasons.
The Cityzens are also the team that beat Inter in the final of the 2022-23 edition of the Champions League.
Inter Defender Stefan De Vrij: “Man City Aren’t Just Erling Haaland”
There is no doubt who City’s danger man is.
Striker Erling Haaland has already scored an astonishing nine goals from just four matches in the Premier League so far.
The Norwegian has been City’s top scorer in both of the previous two seasons as well, since joining from Borussia Dortmund.
Therefore, keeping Haaland quiet will certainly be a formidable task.
But Inter have already done so. The City striker had a very quiet match when his team faced Inter in the Champions League final two seasons ago.
However, the Nerazzurri learned that that is not enough against City.
On that occasion, midfielder Rodri popped up with the winner to break Inter hearts.
Looking ahead to Wednesday’s match against City and Haaland, Inter defender de Vrij said that “These are big matches for us as defenders.”
“We’ll do everything we can to play well,” he continued. “We’ll try to defend as a team.”
De Vrij made clear that “City are not just Haaland.”
“All the players they have are top quality,” said the Dutchman. “We have to prepare as best we can to both defend and attack as a team.”
As for yesterday’s draw with Monza, de Vrij admitted that “Obviously we came here to win so we’re disappointed.”
“We started fairly well,” the Inter defender continued. “We created several chances.”
“But unfortunately we weren’t able to score any goal.”
“Then the pace slowed down, they defended deep, and we struggled to find space,” de Vrij said.
