From the way he talks about it you could be forgiven for thinking he was going to be playing tomorrow. You can hear the excitement in his voice and see it in his eyes. When it comes to counting down the hours to the derby, clearly nothing has changed for Nicola Berti.
The former Nerazzurri midfielder spoke to inter.it about what #MilanInter means to him, to the players and to the fans. “What do I think when the derby is mentioned? It’s a unique feeling, a game that always felt really important to me. It’s a thrilling match to be involved in, a one-off event.”
Once Berti gets going on the derby, there’s no stopping him. He smiles and laughs as he recalls the build-up, the atmosphere, the match itself. And the fans. “They are unique. They’re the same as they were back then: full of passion and with high expectations. I’m sure they’ll turn out in numbers and it will be fantastic. The derby makes you proud to be an Interista.”
He described what it was like preparing for a derby as a player. “Just before the game kicks off you almost feel like a kid. You’re so caught up in it all you almost get lost. Then you realise that you feel good. You cross the white line, you’re happy and you want to make everyone else happy. You’d see all the fans out there, all for you, for us, and you couldn’t wait for it to start.”
Berti remembers the atmosphere in the city and the dressing room. “You could really sense the excitement building up in the city. And then there were people like Bergomi who had grown up in the academy. They’d see that I was calm and smiling and perhaps in some way that helped release a bit of the tension in the dressing room.”
After that it was onto the pitch for the warm-up. And Berti had his own way of doing things. “I remember I used to wind up the Milan players while we were all out there warming up. The derby started before kick-off!” he laughs. Tomorrow it’s derby time again and Berti and Inter are ready for it. With the same enthusiasm as always.
Source: inter.it
