Article by Aurelian Botezatu – Published Saturday, December 27, 2025, 07:35 / Updated Saturday, December 27, 2025 07:37
Cristi Chivu took over at Inter in the summer after the team had lost all the major trophies of the season with Simone Inzaghi on the bench.
Inter lost the Scudetto, won in the final stages of the Naples championship, but especially the Champions League, losing 0-5 to PSG. That's when Cristi Chivu returned to the Nerazzurri landscape, after he had just saved Parma from relegation in 13 hellish stages.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan: “Cristi Chivu restored our energy and confidence”
“The team was mentally exhausted. After that defeat in the Champions League, all the Inter fans and we, the players, were down. At the bottom of the abyss. The disappointment was enormous and we realized that the past could not be rewritten,” midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan described the mood at Inter when Cristi Chivu arrived on the bench, replacing Simone Inzaghi.
Cristi Chivu at Genoa – Inter 1-2 / Photo: Imago Images
The impact of the Romanian coach? “He took over the team when we were feeling depressed. But he, who lived through these dynamics like a great player, knew exactly what was going through our heads. He restored our energy and confidence, making us understand that the only thing we have control over is the future,” the Armenian international told the “Cronache di Spogliatoio” show.
Henrikh Mhitaryan: “Cristi Chivu understood what to keep and what to change”
Mkhitaryan explained that the key to Chivu's success lies in his managerial acumen: “He didn't want to erase four years of work from day one. He understood what to keep and what to change.
Even if he had different ideas from Inzaghi, his greatness united us. It made us believe again that together no goal is impossible. Thanks to his words, we turned the page and now that final is just a memory behind us.
The start wasn't bad, but it wasn't perfect either. We certainly could have achieved more. But the course is set. We follow our way. We are halfway there and the accounts will be closed only at the end”.
Cristi Chivu led the team to 1st place, with 33 points after 15 stages. It has one in front of Milan and is two behind the champion Napoli, and on Sunday evening, from 21:45, it has scheduled the “shock” with Atalanta.
