Inter Survive In Europe (For Now)

 Inter lived to see another day in European competition this season. We beat Borussia Monchengladbach this morning to record our first win in this season’s Champions League campaign. It was a nail-biting and nervy conclusion to the match but a huge relief at full-time. More on the match later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNffficKDI0

Irritation From Defeats to Real

Before Inter took on the pitch, news came through that Shakthar Donestk had completed a double over Real Madrid. It was an irritating result because we have just lost twice to the Spanish giants. Over two games against Real, I felt that we didn’t do enough to beat them. We didn’t believe enough and were not brave enough. Had we done so, we would have at least got one win from two matches against them. We were a little unlucky too that the first Real goal in the first match stood despite a foul on Achraf Hakimi in its build-up. Then we had only ourselves to be blamed for not taking our chances and getting caught out on the counter-attack. In the second match, Real played very well. They got their tactics right and we paid the price for stupidity by going a man down early in the game. I do not agree with Antonio Conte that the difference between the two sides was the level both sides were at. I felt we are at least on-par with them.

First Half of Dominance

On this match against Monchengladbach, we had the better of the match as we did in the first match at San Siro. The difference was that Monchengladbach was non-existent as an attacking force for the whole of the first half in Milan while at home they got into the match in the last five to ten minutes of the first half. We were rewarded for our strong start by scoring first albeit through an unlikely source, Matteo Darmian. We got sloppy to allow Monchengladbach back into the game. Our defensive organisation became looser and the passes got sloppy. Darmian, I would say was at fault for not covering the back post to allow Alassane Plea to score a sickening equaliser. We paid the price for not capitalising to score more in our moment of ascendancy in the first half.

Wrapping Up The Game

In the second half, to our credit, heads did not drop but the passing was less precise. Thankfully, in that period, we weren’t punished. We grew into the game and took the lead through Romelu Lukaku. Up until that goal, he played a supporting role in the game. His quality and strength shone through once again to give us the lead. He then scored our third from a simple counter-attack move. It looked like we had wrapped the game and three points up but made it unnecessarily hairy. Substitute Alexis Sanchez went from contributing to the third goal, on the way to contributing a potential fourth goal, gave the ball away for Plea to score his and his team’s second goal.

Inter Hang On & New Found Stability

Inter hung on thanks to a VAR decision in our favour when Plea’s shot was interfered by Breel Embolo in an offside position. This win might still not be enough to guarantee our qualification. We need to beat Shakhtar at home and hope Monchengladbach do the same to Real. Any other permutation will see us go out of the Champions League or Europe completely. Conte seems to have found some stability in terms of the way the team is lined up and positioned but rotation is required for the coming matches. Hopefully, this run goes on for as long as possible with ruthlessness, efficiency and determination.