Barcelona were interested to rejuvenate their squad with the signing of the Inter Milan midfielder.
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Inter Milan midfielder Marcelo Brozovic dented Barcelona hopes of rejuvenating their side under new head coach Xavi as the Croatian is set to extend his contract till June 2026 with the Serie A giants. The Croatian international, who has earned more than 70 caps for his country, will see his contract expire at the club this season. The Spanish football giants were banking on the opportunity to sign Brozovic but Sky Sports Italia understands that he will sign a contract extension later today and an official announcement is expected on Tuesday.
Barcelona made a last-ditch attempt to sign Brozovic last week. But their perseverance to bring him to Nou Camp as a free agent has not worked out in their favour. He had also been linked to Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur and missed out on only two fixtures this season — Empoli in Coppa Italia and Sassuolo yesterday — which highlight his importance in the side.
Brozovic has played 275 games with the Nerazzurri, scoring 26 goals and delivering 35 assists.
In absence of Brozovic, Inter Milan were blanked 0-2 by Sassuolo, in the league fixture. It was the third defeat of the season for Inter and head coach Simone Inzaghi highlighted that poor approach was the key for their loss.
“I’m really annoyed with our approach, because we spoke about it after the game on Wednesday. Sassuolo had already won at the San Siro against Milan and in Turin against Juventus. They play well on the counter and we needed to be careful of this. We created so many chances in the second half but it didn’t go our way. We needed to approach the game differently, irrespective of the qualities Sassuolo possessed and the fact that they came to the game fresher physically than us.
“We created lots of chances but couldn’t get the goal to get us back in it. We also lost our shape a bit because we were trying to get back into the game. We didn’t do that and need to look into why that was. When a game doesn’t go well, we have to put it behind us because there’s another important match in four days’ time. We need to recover physically and mentally. There are 13 games left before the end of the season and we have to move forward now.”
The club, however, remain in title hunt as they remain two points short of league leaders AC Milan who have played an extra match.
