Mourinho takes dig at Lippi ahead of Milan clash

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho could not resist a dig at Italy coach Marcello Lippi ahead of Sunday’s crucial derby against AC Milan at the San Siro.

A storm has been brewing this week after Lippi chose to visit Juventus and Milan but not Inter.

Those inside the halls at the champions have accused the national team coach of bias towards the other two big sides in Italy while Lippi himself claimed there weren’t enough Italians at Inter to warrant a trip.

But Mourinho suggested on Saturday there was another reason the club’s former coach did not return.

“Maybe Lippi didn’t come back here because he wasn’t happy at Inter,” said Mourinho slyly.

“It’s not a problem for me but who knows, coming back here reminds him of a period of his career that didn’t go well.”

After great success – three Serie A titles and the Champions League – during his first spell at Juventus, Lippi joined Inter in 1999 but was fired one game into his second season.

In 2001 he returned to Juventus and led them to two more titles and another Champions League final.

While Mourinho took a dig at Lippi, he had much kinder words to say about his opposite number on Sunday, Leonardo.

The Brazilian had a torrid start to his Milan career, winning only three and scoring just six goals in his opening nine matches.

But since then Milan have soared, winning eight of their last nine Serie A encounters.

“First of all I’m happy things have gone this way and secondly it shows maturity on both his and the club’s part because there are clubs who at the first sign of fragility no longer guarantee their coach the ideal conditions to continue his work,” said Mourinho.

“At Milan it wasn’t like that, they protected Leonardo and now both he and the club are happy and everything’s going well for them. Hence well done to both Leonardo and the club.”

Leonardo for his part is looking forward to the game, although he was at pains to play down it’s significance in terms of the title race.

Inter lead his team by six points but Milan have a game in hand.

“Tomorrow night’s game against Inter will be an extraordinary match, you just need to look at the expectation surrounding this type of game and the number of people who will watch it,” he said.

“It will even be watched live in Brazil, they follow a lot of Milan games.

“But I don’t think it will be too decisive as there are a lot if games left until the end of the season and we still have to play our game in hand against Fiorentina.

“Also from a mathematical perspective you can’t be sure of who’s where because we have a game more to play.

“But it will be important on many other levels, such games as these always leave signals, both positive and negative.”

That was certainly the case when they met on matchday two and Inter, the away team, thrashed Milan 4-0.

That dented Leonardo’s team’s confidence to such an extent that it took them seven matches to recover and only then when they came away from the Bernabeu with a shock 3-2 win over Real Madrid.