manchester inter – Tiscali Sport

It’s a difficult world, an intense life, moments of happiness. Then see what happens to you. Manchester City winsthe best team in the world”as Inzaghi said, the team of stickers, made up only of champions paid for their weight in gold, stolen from the rich and the starving, the one that can cheat the rules so that no one tells them anything, because you can’t punish those who fill of money all.

Manchester wins, as the bookmakers had said, which they were so sure as to give it to almost nothing, 1.25. But he wins dirty, because what he really deserved was Inter. Now it’s useless to whine. But Di Marco’s crossbar, Lukaku who saves Di Marco’s goal on the line, two incredible saves without knowing how Ederson did it, the second at the last second, and then the missed goal by Lautaro on zero. Inter deserved an extraordinary Inzaghi, who had designed the perfect match, deserved theInter of Lukaku, of Brozovic, of all those who put the strongest on the ropesthey besieged her like a boxer looking for the knockout blow, they stoically filled her with right punches, hooks, uppercuts, never giving up until the last second.

Instead, City won. on an Acerbi mistake (on crosses we were taught that you never return to the front, but only to the side), impeccable up to that moment. Guardiola’s City won by a goal to zero, which has regained the Champions League since Barcelona. Let’s say it was written that football is an unfair game, that when the stars decide there’s nothing you can do. Anything you want. At least this time we can not blame the referee. But it’s a difficult world. Our little life, our big heart…

In Manchester City there is no Walker, already in strong doubt on the eve, an important absence in the Cityzens chessboard, a bit of a fate for Bonucci, the good one however, the only one in the rearguard to whom Pep entrusts the task of setting the maneuver from below, with the freedom to push forward as well. Instead of him Aké. There is the more expert Silva instead of the acrobatic Fodenbut a change is likely during the match.

On the other wing Grealish, and then all the starters, with the public danger Haaland at the center of the attack. In Inter Inzaghi preferred Dzeko, one of the best Nerazzurri in the Champions League, with Lukaku, who is also in excellent shape, ready to take over. Behind, Skriniar is now fully recovered, but the coach has decided to rely on the consolidated Darmian, Bastoni and Acerbi, an all-Italian trio. In the middle of the field, as expected, is Brozovic. Mkhytarian sits on the bench. Ahead is Taurus the most awaited man. And Lautaro should take on the whole match, given the imperfect conditions of Correa, who usually replaces him in the last quarter of an hour. One hundred and fifty million viewers across the globe in front of the TV, plus the 75,000 crowded in the stands of Ataturk’s stadium in Istanbul, with a slight prevalence of Inter fans, at least judging by the noise of the fans. Referee Marciniak, knowledge not unwelcome to the Biscione.

We leave. And Inter, at least in the first few minutes, didn’t seem submissive at all and even tried to press high. In the 5th minute, however, she was all squashed in her own area, when Silva dribbled free and tried a shot from close range that was lost on the back. There isn’t a great pace, but it’s mainly the English who slow down the rhythms. With the ball and chain, the Nerazzurri speed up more, as in the 9th minute, with Di Marco arriving in a cross retaliated by the Cityzens defence. The start of the game is very strange. Manchester seems almost blocked, a distant relative of the one who asphalted Real Madrid. It seems more the away version, which to be honest has never shone much in the Champions League. The high blood pressure from Brozovic and his companions prevents the usual enveloping maneuver by Guardiola’s boys. So it’s Inter who tries harder to make themselves dangerous.

In the 19th minute from Di Marco to Lautaro who serves behind Brozovic in the race: high shot. In the 25th minute Manchester’s defense messed up and Barella looked for a lob from afar into the unguarded goal, but the attempt was crooked and lopsided. Then two minutes later, suddenly like a bolt of lightning in a clear sky, De Bruyne lets the ball through for Haaland who spreads out and kicks to cross: Onana, very good, blocks with his left arm. This action perhaps shocks City. Immediately after, De Bruyne from outside, central, and an easy save by the Nerazzurri goalkeeper. But not a minute goes by that the Belgian playmaker collapses to the ground. A bad blow for Manchester: the number 17 is forced to leave the field. In place of him Foden, who is a completely different type of player, more suitable on the wing than to inspire strikers. Goalless first half.

All those – that is, the great majority – who had predicted the City’s easy walk were obviously wrong. For now it’s a zero to zero written and served, with only one shot on goal, by Haaland towards the half hour. Inter is there, they didn’t just think about defending themselves, also tried to press high, always remaining very careful in the rear, and the game is open to any result. His defensive performance is almost perfect, with Inzaghi choosing to man the most dangerous references, allowing very little space for the two wingers. So Manchester ended up running aground in the Nerazzurri net. What’s more, City, after Walker, has lost another very important player in De Bruyne. Inter could really start to believe in it.

Especially since the second half resumed along the lines of the first. Manchester continues to play the game, however, almost never putting an orderly and precise Inter, as well as patient, in difficulty. What is most striking about City is their clearly sub-rhythm performance, which never manages to accelerate in the last thirty metres. If you still have in your eyes the four to zero with which he had liquidated Real Madrid, this seems completely another team, or a distant relative, unable to produce the quick exchanges and all the intensity with which he had first crushed and then annihilated the defense of the blancos.

So the only action that comes very close to scoring is from Inter who really has to eat her hands for not having taken the lead, 14′ into the second half, when the usual mistake of the shaky Akanji, by far the worst on the pitch, launches Lautaro alone in front of Ederson with Lukaku free a stone’s throw from the empty net, with Toro who, however, misses everything and does neither a shot nor a pass and hits the goalkeeper. Then as those of the clichés say, wrong goal, conceded goal. Akanji, incredible himself, slots in for Bernardo Silva who crosses into the crowded area, Acerbi returns on Rodri who from the edge of the area places it flat right in the corner. One to zero. It may not be right but it is. And that Inter don’t deserve the disadvantage can be clearly seen two minutes later, in the 71st minute: scrum in the City area, you hit and hit, Dumfies lifts a strange parabola that frees Di Marco in front of goal, header and crossbar, he takes the ball back and tries again without fail with the goalkeeper on the ground, but hits Lukaku. Romelu in the 73rd minute tries to make it up to you: Ederson blocks him on the ground in two stages.

Now it’s another game entirely. Inter rushed forward leaving room for the counterattack of an increasingly tired and imprecise Manchester, but which with the artists it finds can do a lot of harm in the empty prairies. And in the 78th minute Foden does it all by himself, enters the area and looks for a fine corner: well done Onana to relax and block in a dive. Ebntra the bruised Walker in place of Stones, according to the best of him. Inzaghi makes all the changes available.

After Lukaku, Gosens, Bellanova and Mkhytarian also enter. At 88? the goal for Inter is sensational: Brozovic crosses, Gosens flies into the sky to make the side of Lukaku who presses the ball two meters from Ederson who doesn’t even know how he managed to return it. From then on, Manchester City changed face, and cityzens by the moralist Guardiola they do everything he can’t stand, they provoke, they waste time in an obvious and ridiculous way, they throw the balls into the stands, they dive to the ground as soon as they can. Even Haaland went to foul Onana to prevent him from restarting the action immediately. In the last minute of added time, in the 96th minute, Ederson even performs a miracle on Gosens’ header, as he does, diving with his eyes closed, without knowing what he’s doing. But that’s how it is in the game. The good ball has already decided the en plein. «Our little life, our big heart. It’s a difficult world».