Allegri concentrates on Inter derby

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri says he cannot afford to think about Juventus as he prepares for a vital derby clash with Inter Milan.

Milan trail unbeaten Juventus by a point heading into their penultimate game of the season on Sunday, the coach knowing that any slip-up against their local rival could hand Juve their first title since returning to Serie A in the wake of the Calciopoli scandal.

But Allegri believes it is useless to concentrate on what Juventus are doing, saying the only thing he can control is his side’s preparation for the derby.

“Derby matches are always special matches,” Allegri said.

“We need a great performance and to achieve a good result

“We will try to win, but this doesn’t mean we will play an unbalanced match.

“If we want to try to win the championship, we will do our best to win tomorrow and we hope Juventus doesn’t win against Cagliari in Trieste.

“In any case we should only be focused on winning tomorrow without thinking about what Juventus will do: first of all because we can get to the last match of the championship to decide the winner – even if I don’t think the last match can change the table – and then because we could win the derby.

“Given that we lost the last derby match, this should represent another motivation for us.”

Although losing to Inter and giving up the title would be bad, Allegri said finishing the season on the same amount of points as Juventus would be worse, as Juve would be handed the title on the back of their better head-to-head record against Milan.

“It would annoy me if we end on the same amount of points as Juventus,” Allegri said.

“Let’s hope that it doesn’t happen.

“I believe whoever is on top tomorrow evening is 99 per cent sure of winning the Scudetto, although anything can happen.”

Inter Milan will also be determined as the sixth-placed club are on 55 points, just three adrift of third-placed Napoli, who currently occupy Italy’s final Champions League qualification position.

With a position in Europe’s pre-eminent competition still up for grabs for Inter Milan, Allegri believes they will opt for all-out attack when they face his side.

“I don’t know how Inter Milan is going to play tomorrow, but according to their last matches, Inter is going to be very offensive,” Allegri said.

“Recently they have done great things and achieved great results and can still battle for the third position of the table.”