Sarri incident ´in the past´, says Mancini

Inter head coach Roberto Mancini insists there will be no tension between him and Napoli counterpart Maurizio Sarri when the two meet on Saturday.

The pair fell out in spectacular fashion following a Coppa Italia meeting earlier in the season, with Mancini accusing Sarri of being a racist and a homophobe.

Sarri later apologised, and Saturday’s meeting at San Siro will represent the first time they have met since that fiery confrontation in January.

But the Inter boss stressed in his pre-match media conference that there would be no hard feelings between the pair.

“I’ll shake hands with Sarri, the incident is in the past,” he said.

Mancini also dismissed reports of a rift with top scorer Mauro Icardi.

“There have never been any problems. If a player is on the bench they’re never happy, it’s happened to Icardi, [Stevan] Jovetic and [Rodrigo] Palacio,” he said.

“There have never been any problems, as people have written. I don’t know why [they wrote that].”

Inter trail Roma – in the third and final Champions League qualification place – by six points with as many games remaining, and Mancini is not optimistic his side can overhaul their rivals.

“I don’t think there’s much chance, but with 18 points to play for we have to think positive,” he said.