Gilberto: We’ll Take Inter To The Limits
September 15, 2008
Panathinaikos new boy Gilberto has admitted that beginning their Champions League campaign against Italian champions Inter on Tuesday is a tall order, but insisted that his team will be up for the challenge.
Greek giants Panathinaikos have made their return to the Champions League following a two-year absence from Europe’s biggest stage. A third-place finish in the Greek league last season was enough for them to enter the qualifying rounds for Europe’s premier club competition, which they reached after disposing of Dinamo Tbilisi and Sparta Prague.
Now they will be up against Inter in the full knowledge that last time they faced an Italian opponent in a home game they lost 2-1 to Udinese, which effectively meant they wouldn’t even be able to continue in the Uefa Cup. That was also the only time they have ever lost to an Italian side at home in the Champions League.
“It won’t be easy, that’s for sure,” said Gilberto, who made the switch from Arsenal in the summer.
“This is the highest level and every match is difficult. We’ll need to respect all our opponents, not just teams of Inter’s calibre. Inter’s players are more experienced than ours. At Panathinaikos, we have many young players in our ranks and we lack this sort of experience, both as group and as individuals.”
He added: “Rest assured that we’ll fight to the end. We’ll do the best we can on the pitch. We have faith in our abilities and hopefully we will get a positive result. It’s a big challenge for everyone, but if we want to be at the top we have to play against such teams.”
Gilberto will be up against some familiar faces, not least of which will be ex Arsenal team-mate Patrick Vieira, but also international colleagues Júlio César and Maicon.
“It’s been a long time since I last saw Patrick,” said Gilberto on uefa.com. “It will be nice to see him again. I look forward to it and I hope I will have a good game against these friends.”