LILLE - Thiago Motta returned to the Inter line-up at the Stadium Lille Métropole for Matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League - his first appearance since he got injured while on international duty with Italy at the start of the season. "It was a very important win against a team that play good football, even though they caused us a few problems especially in the first half, with their alert defence and fast attacks. In the second half we did well to keep the game under control." The Italo-Brazilian was commenting on the victory over Lille as he was interviewed by Mediaset Premium. He went on to talk about his own team and the team-mates he's now back on the pitch with again: "We're a team and when we play with this character and this desire we are a strong side. It's nice to be playing again. It's hard training alone."
It doesn't end here of course: "We mustn't forget the league; we must remember that we're not in the best of situations. Playing as we did today we'll soon straighten the ship. It's hard to judge from the outside what has happened to Inter in this period, but with hard work and Ranieri's ideas we can bounce back in the league too. Is the Treble-winning side past it? Maybe you're forgetting that we almost got knocked out of the Champions League that year, in Kiev in the group stage, and then we won everything. That's the way football is; anything can happen and we want it to happen again.
"It's too early to write off our chances of winning the Scudetto," Thiago Motta added. "There have been plenty of teams in the past that started badly and then managed to climb back up, so let's get another win against Chievo and start putting together a run. The teams ahead of us will probably go through their own rough patches."
