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Rome. Manager Jose Mourinho has proved his tactical skill in Europe with two victories over Chelsea. Now he needs to get Inter Milan going again in Serie A, where the club’s lead over city rival AC Milan has dwindled to one point with 10 games remaining.

Mourinho was widely lauded for using a three-forward lineup in Tuesday’s 1-0 win over his former club. Having won the opening leg 2-1, Inter could have played for a scoreless draw in London and advanced, but Mourinho said that was never an option.

“I rewatched the first leg seven times and I knew there was no way to sit back against Chelsea,” Mourinho said. “The best defense was to attack constantly.”

Inter did go on the attack and created chances for each of its strikers — Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito and Goran Pandev — before Eto’o sealed Inter’s place in the Champions League quarterfinals with a 78th-minute goal.

“The team was perfect. They played great throughout the match,” Mourinho said.

It was a far cry from Inter’s performance just four days earlier, when the four-time defending Serie A champion squandered a 1-0 lead to lose 3-1 at Catania.

Inter travels to another Sicilian team, Palermo, on Saturday and an improved performance is expected. Mourinho left Mario Balotelli, 19, off the squad for the Chelsea game, and the forward could return against Palermo.

Inter leads the league with 59 points, Milan has 58, AS Roma is third with 53 and Palermo is fourth with 46.

Milan hosts Napoli on Sunday and is without David Beckham and likely Alessandro Nesta for the rest of the season after both players had surgery on Monday.

Milan has found itself rooting for Inter in Europe so Italy can maintain four teams in the Champions League, but it doesn’t mind having its rival still occupied by such an important competition.

“It was a great game,” Nesta said of Inter’s win over Chelsea as he left the hospital on Wednesday. “Now let’s hope Inter becomes distracted by the Champions League.”

Milan was eliminated from Europe after a devastating 4-0 loss to Manchester United last week. It was Milan’s worst loss in continental play since a 4-0 defeat by Deportivo La Coruna in the 2004 quarterfinals.

“Hopefully we can bounce back and win the Serie A title like we did in 2004,” Milan vice president Adriano Galliani said.

Fifth-place Juventus visits Sampdoria in its attempt to get back into the Champions League places. Juventus took a 3-1 first-leg lead into its return game at Fulham in the Europa League’s last 16 on Thursday.

Roma gave up a hat-trick to Cristiano Lucarelli in a 3-3 draw at Livorno last weekend and now it will have to deal with the always-dangerous Udinese.


Associated Press