SVEN Goran Eriksson will be among the first to congratulate his friend Roy Hodgson if the Blackburn Rovers manager-elect realises UEFA Cup glory at the San Siro tonight.
The Sampdoria coach, who made a dramatic about-turn in February after committing himself last December to succeeding Ray Harford at Ewood Park, believes Hodgson's Internazionale will defeat Schalke 04 by two or three goals tonight to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg.
And he is in a better position than most to offer a considered opinion.
His Samp side have experienced both victory and defeat against Inter in Serie A this season, the 4-3 win at the San Siro being a match for the ages.
But it is his accomplishments in Europe which make his testimony impossible to disregard.
In 1982 he won the UEFA Cup with IFK Gothenburg before steering Benfica to the final one year later, only to be thwarted by Anderlecht.
He also masterminded the Portuguese champions' march to the European Cup final in 1990 where they lost 1-0 to the all-conquering (at that time) AC Milan.
And Eriksson has no doubt that Hodgson has what it takes to achieve success in Europe himself.
"Roy has experienced football throughout Europe and is thorough in his planning before every game," said Eriksson who, as expected, will become Lazio's coach next season.
"He knows exactly what he wants and is good at getting out of his players what he wants.
"Inter are a very well-organised, physically strong side.
"They have better individuals in their team than Schalke although, we all know that German teams are not easy to beat.
"Against them a couple of weeks ago, I thought we (Samp) were unlucky.
"We were 1-0 ahead but conceded a goal just before half-time.
"In the second half Inter played well and, tactically, we were not very good.
"We tried to attack too much - even our full backs - and they found a lot of space to counter attack. "If they play like that they will win it tonight, I am sure."
And winning, says Eriksson is what it's all about.
"It's not important, it's very important," he added.
"He (Hodgson) is 90 minutes from a title.
"When you finish your career as a manager, what's there always are the titles you win.
"I have won and lost in a UEFA final - that's the difference.
"As the ABBA song goes, the winner takes it all - good song, good band, good line."
The line doing the rounds yesterday at La Pinetina, Inter's magnificent training facility, was the imminent signing of Barcelona's brilliant Brazilian, Ronaldo.
So many journalists turned up to see the striker that the planned press conference had to be moved to more spacious facilities upstairs.
"The scene was crazy, absolutely hectic," said Dominique Antognoni, editor of Football Europe.
"So many important things happen in Italian football, but this was quite big!
"But Inter have an important final to concentrate on tonight so Hodgson and his players were not too distracted by it all.
"Ronaldo is not Hodgson's problem anyway.
"Inter fans, I think, expect a win tonight - they always expect to win so why change?
"The widespread belief is that Inter will score three, maybe four goals."
Inter were expected to complete the mammoth (not to mention world record) £19 million signing of Ronaldo today - though he won't be eligible to play for Roy Hodgson tonight.
The players he does have at his disposal, though, should be enough.
Paul Ince and Youri Djorkaeff return after missing the first leg through suspension.
"And that means Alan Winter does not play - that is even better news for Inter!" concluded Antognoni.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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