Inter didn't start the season well. I noticed something was not right from the pre-season results but didn't read too much into it because it's pre-season after all. We got off to a flying start in our first match and I thought, we are on track after all but we made it hard for ourselves. Things were only to get harder. We looked off the pace, short on fitness and it looked like the doubts in the summer surrounding Milan Skriniar's future at the club had an effect on him and his team-mates. The players seemed easily irritable and they weren't focused. We lost a lot of ground in the title race early on losing head-to-head deservingly against Lazio and Milan, less so against Roma. In between, we lost deservingly to Udinese as well. Our form picked up after losing to Roma with 4 wins on the trot before another head-to-head defeat away to Juventus but that was a punctuation of a run of 6 wins in 7 matches before the World Cup break. After the break, we started well inf...
Inter swept past Milan 3-0 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to retain the Supercoppa Italiana. I couldn't watch the match as it wasn't shown "live" in Singapore. It is always great to win a derby in this fashion but the feeling is lost when you don't actually watch the match. We have continued the trend of winning trophies in consecutive seasons which is an excellent habit to cultivate and this victory has proved that there is no doubt that Inter can beat anyone in a one-off match. However, this victory just papers over growing cracks at Inter. When I see the club President, Steven Zhang get involved in the trophy celebrations, I feel he is not embarrassed. To be honest, his involvement looks a bit awkward as well. The squad is increasingly heading towards degeneration as the best players are slowly getting picked apart and replaced by ageing players. We know the reason why this is the case - the club is broke and they have to sell to invest in the team. The 30-something-...
We are on the eve of Euro 2020 and Italy will kick off the tournament for the first time in my time as a fan. In the days leading up to the tournament, there has been a lot of positive attention on the team. Some are tipping them to be the dark horses of the tournament, some are tipping them to go all the way to the final and even winning it. If you have followed the Italian national team as long as I have, you will know that this spells trouble. Whenever Italy has entered a tournament as one of the favourites, they have disappointed for example 1996, 2002 and 2004. The only exception would be 1994 where they went all the way to the final after a slow start. When no one has given them a chance, they have done well as we have seen in 2000, 2006, 2012 and to an extent, 2016. If I apply this logic, it doesn’t bode well for Italy in this tournament. I have not watched Italy play since that unfateful World Cup qualifier playoff elimination by Sweden in 2017 because I have not had any ac...
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