INTER MILAN coach Roy Hodgson backed his men to win the UEFA Cup this season as he prepared them for tonight's semifinal, first leg, against French league leaders Monaco.
Hodgson, who will be coaching Blackburn Rovers next season, dismissed last weekend's miserable away draw with Fiorentina as just the luck of the game and set his sights on cup success.
"Monaco are a very good team and I think they'll win the French championship by a very big margin," he said yesterday at Inter's, training base.
But he had no fears after his side's performance in Florence, and the possible repercussions at San Saro tonight. "We're currently third in the Serie A, but even if we were bottom it wouldn't matter because this is a European semi final. The word `fear' is not something I like to use in connection with football but I hope my team won't have fear.
"I have faith in my team and I believe they can win this semifinal and that they can win the cup. I'm not going to lose that faith just because of what didn't go right for 45 minutes last Saturday.
"If we are at our best we can do it. If we're not, we could lose against teams that are weaker than any of the other three left in the competition. But I'd like to win the UEFA Cup, for the club, for the players and for myself, and I'll do everything I can to achieve that."
At the heart of this Italian versus French battle, England's Paul Ince squares up against Scotland's John Collins in midfield.
Collins, whose Monaco side eliminated Newcastle last month and are shooting for a league and, UEFA Cup double under Jean Tigana's guidance, said: "Ince has enhanced his reputation in Italy and that is what you aim for when you move abroad. If Paul returns to the Premiership next season then he will want to finish his stay at Inter on a high so we must be wary of them in the semi final."
Monaco, though are also on a high - they are currently 12 points clear of Paris St Germain at the top of the French league, with just six games left. While Inter and Monaco can both claim a glittering past and would provide glamour opposition in the final, neither of the other semi finalists, Schalke 04 or Tenerife have figured prominently either in Europe or even in the more earthy confines of their domestic competitions.
Schalke have lifted the German championship seven times but not since 1958 and they currently lie seventh in the Bundesliga.
Spanish club Tenerife have won no major honours since their formation in 1910 and after their 3-1 defeat by Celtic Vigo at the weekend, are moored in ninth place in the standings.
Even so, their coach Jupp Heynckes, who graced the Bundesliga in his playing career can be excused for thinking that Tenerife deserved to be drawn in the weaker of the two semi finals after overcoming some of Europe's best teams in earlier rounds.
The Canary Islanders knocked out Italian side Lazio and Feyenoord before a dramatic extra time win over Brondby of Denmark in the quarter finals.
The delights of Europe, though, have affected Tenerife's league form in recent weeks and this was reflected by Saturday's defeat.
"We couldn't find our position on the field, and that's why we lost," said Heynckes, who was formerly at Borussia Moenchengladbach, Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt.
The short term good news from the game was that none of Heynckes' players were injured. The long term bad news is that a well publicised row over flights means that Heynckes may not stay on.
Heynckes wants to take the team to away games on chartered flights rather than the regular flights preferred by club management. His patience was strained to breaking point when the return flight from Celta arrived home at three o'clock on Sunday morning and training later in the day had to be abandoned.
Schalke, meanwhile, have been left to rue the fact that the tie may be decided by the men off the field rather than those on it. The absence of injured strikers Martin Max and Youri Mulder for the rest of the season will be a huge blow.
Max and Dutchman Mulder, who helped steer the club into the last four with a quarter final win over another Spanish club Valencia, were both injured in the goalless draw at Karlsruhe in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Mulder underwent an operation on his left knee and could be out of the game for up to eight months while Max, who has torn ankle ligaments, is not expected to play for six weeks.
"We have no alternatives up front. This has obviously been a double blow," said general manager Rudi Assauer.
The options are not obvious with David Wagner the only other striker in the squad although Belgian Marc Wilmots could play up front in tonight's home leg.
