Benitez welcomes Motta return

Inter Milan manager Rafa Benitez has confirmed Thiago Motta will play a part in their Serie A clash against Lazio on Friday.

The midfielder came on as a substitute in Inter’s 5-2 win over Parma last start in a return from injury, scoring within minutes of gracing the pitch, and Benitez confirmed he would be fit to take part again on Friday.

“Well, he (Motta) can play. He’s not at 100 percent, but he can play,” Benitez said.

“Of course, if he’s available, we have different options that we couldn’t evaluate in other matches. Now we have the chance to play with a high-quality midfield made of three players. We’ll evaluate match by match.”

“Of course with Motta or Muntari, who is getting back, it will be easier to choose to play with three midfielders if necessary.”

“The point is to choose if two and one or one and two will be playing, but in the end it always makes three.”

But the former Liverpool manager will not have Diego Milito at his disposal for the trip to the Italian capital.

“He (Milito) isn’t ready to play against Lazio in Rome. I want to see all these injured players as soon as possible, so that they can train with the team and we can work with them. If this is not possible, we won’t risk. He’s not ready to play in the match against Lazio,” he said.

Benitez is hoping his side can emulate their goal fest that saw them thrash Parma last time out.

“I believe we did a good job the other day when we scored five goals. We have conceded two goals and could have conceded even more, but on the other hand we have scored five goals and we could have scored even eight goals,” he said.

“We’ll try to repeat the same good job in the attacking areas in the match against Lazio and we’ll try to improve in the defensive areas.”

Lazio manager Edoardo Reja admitted his side needed to play faultless football to take anything from their fixture against the three-time champions.

“We will have to play a perfect match in order to take advantage,” Reja said.

“We will all be highly focused on the match, but there should be also a certain tactical cleverness in order to create as many problems as possible to their defensive players.”

“We’ll be playing against a team who is very good at playing and at letting the other team plays.”