Winning Run Halted But Not The Lead

From Manchester United, we got to Inter and the two consecutive draws we have had.

Napoli vs Inter

Both teams made a cagey start as they were wary not to make a mistake. Inter had the better of the chances. Matteo Darmian was played in by Romelu Lukaku but he chose to cross instead of shoot. Lukaku then hit the bar before Inter were unlucky to concede. Many fans have labelled it as a Samir Handanovic mistake but I felt he was unlucky. He gathered Lorenzo Insigne’s cross and crashed into Stefan de Vrij for the own goal. Handanovic could have gathered the cross better but I felt it was his momentum that made him crash into de Vrij. Our response to going 0-1 down was heartening. We had the better of the game. Lukaku hit the post and Nicolo Barella ran on to a through pass but his first touch was too heavy. We finally got a deserved equaliser in the second half through a Christian Eriksen shot from outside the box. We should expect more goals from him so let’s hope we get that in the coming weeks. Like Inter, Napoli responded strongly to conceding. We had a couple of hairy moments, Fabian Ruiz nearly getting on the end of a header and our former player, Matteo Politano crashed his shot off the bar. By and large, we held firm and kept out Napoli. Achraf Hakimi had one late half-chance. Like Darmian, he should have shot instead of trying to cross. It was not a bad point to gain considering the strength of the opponent and the character we showed to come from 0-1 down.

Spezia vs Inter

We conceded with our first and what turned out to be our only shot on our goal. For this goal, I would admit it is Samir Handanovic’s mistake as he allowed the ball to bounce through him.  It was all us after we conceded but we were not sharp enough in the final third. We got to the end of some corners but couldn’t direct the header goalwards. Achraf Hakimi has been wasteful with his crosses in recent weeks but he got one right here. His cross was made by the returning Ivan Perisic who prodded in the equaliser from a few yards out. Romelu Lukaku was handed the opportunity on a plate to give us the lead. He tried to round the goalkeeper but was denied by Ivan Provedel. He had a second bite of the cherry but the same goalkeeper denied him again. In hindsight, had he left it to Lautaro Martinez running behind him, we might have a better chance of scoring. Lautaro was unlucky as he had two shots off the post, one that was squirmed by Provedel and the other a clean strike. He too was presented a chance but before he could get close to goal, he was smothered by the Spezia defender who handed him the opportunity.

Milan Skriniar I thought had given us the lead but his header was held on the line by Provedel. Late in the game, we had two goals disallowed for offside which was frustrating. If only we had been a bit more careful, we would have scored. Lukaku had a late half chance which he skied over. Not the best of performances by the big man. A frustrating draw for Inter but due to results elsewhere, not a bad point to gain as we extended our lead to 10 points.