Struggling in 17th place with just two wins from nine matches, Inter are 13 points adrift of joint league leaders Udinese and Lazio.

Speaking in the lead-up to Inter's clash with Cagliari on Saturday, Ranieri said the aim was still to win the title.

"I believe. It would be an incredible achievement, but this is a very strange championship," he said on Friday.

"If the teams ahead of us maintain their pace then it will be tough, but anything can happen in this division."

"We're just looking to net as many points as possible between now and the end of the season."

"If we were a small club then we would be thinking about survival right now, but with our champions we have to believe in the objective of winning the league."

Inter's last league outing was a 2-1 loss to Juventus on October 29, after their meeting with Genoa, scheduled for November 6, was postponed.

Ranieri, who took over at the San Siro in September after Gian Piero Gasperini was sacked, knows the danger 10th-placd Cagliari can pose to his team.

"They are a team that run and want to play well. It won't be an easy match, but if we put our minds to it we have to beat them," he said.

"Cagliari are very dangerous. Of the nine goals they have scored in total, seven of them were netted away from home."

"We have to play our own game with confidence and determination. That's the only way we are going to get out of this fog."

Inter will have to cope with a weakened defence as Lucio, Maicon and Yuto Nagatomo are all set to miss the encounter through injury.