Minute 52. Inter are losing a game that seems cursed at home with Udinese. On a verticalization from the Juventus defense, Acerbi anticipates his direct opponent, Bayo, marking him from behind, slips his leg between his side and his left arm and crushes him to the ground with the sole. Then he passes in front of him and brings ball beyond the half line, also overcoming Piotrowski, who clings to the shirt. It would have failed, but Inter are in a hurry, it cannot be stopped for so little.
Barella takes over, which with a somewhat lucky and incredibly elastic left -right control – a kind of croquette Made with the neck of the foot instead of with an interior game – Karlstrom dribbles. The ball arrives in Sucic, which closes the triangle with the heel of the right foot, in depth. On the passage of Sucic, Barella arrives a moment before Kristensen, who mows the air in a slip while the Sardinian midfielder flies on him.
Now Barella is up to the penalty area, on the left outside. The time to control the ball that has stretched and arrive on him in two. With an external-inside game of the right foot avoids PioTrowski and makes a tunnel in the heyzibue, who, however, bursts in front of him, protects the ball and waits for the referee to do it foul while Barella pushes from behind in an attempt to recover the ball, like a child who tries to throw down a locked armored door.
It is an action from which Inter has done nothing, indeed it is Udinese who has gained punishment. An action in which, however, there is a dominant advance of Acerbi, two lenses of stretcher that looks like a river that revolves around the rocks that try to bar of the road, and a sucic filter heel shot. It is a small example of how Inter, last night against Udinese, at San Siro, at the same time showed an extraordinary technical and tactic quality, perhaps unparalleled for anyone in Serie A, but also managed to lose the game.
On the same day when Napoli scored the winning goal 20 seconds from the end against Cagliari, Inter was not enough at Inter to be able to equalize Arthur’s goal. A time when Inter, according to Whoscored, had more than 82% of the ball possession, crossed 31 times (out of 37 total cross in the ninety minutes) but pulled just twice (Udinese one, always talking about the second half). An unfortunate defeat, in a certain sense, but also deserved, in another. Inter did not know how to build real occasions: Sava, the goalkeeper of Udinese, did only a couple of parades, and nothing miraculous. Yet it cannot be said that Inter has played badly, individually and collectively.
I make a short list of “non -trivial” games made by Inter players only in the second half, to make you understand what I mean:
- After 17 seconds of the game in the second half sticks put Barella in the area only in front of the goalkeeper with an intercontinental launch that cut the half field diagonally, Barella checked chest, slightly too much to follow, and Solet closed in the corner in a sliding.
- At 54 ‘Dimarco recovers a ball inside the offensive half of the field, sees in the center of Lautaro and serves it with a low razor that passes between two players from Udinese, horizontally; The ball is strong enough for Calhanoglu behind Lautaro, who sees it and lets it flow. The Turkish midfielder controls and kicks from the edge of the area but does not close the corner enough and the shot ends up on the side of the first pole.
- A minute later Dimarco marks the tie with a flying shot of the neck-outside to be framed and put in a museum: canceled for offside of Thuram before the Assist, on the touch of Sucic’s head. At the beginning of the action there had been a nice high advance of bisseck.
- At 68 ‘Dumfries puts a side foul inside the area, Thuram dribbles on the right side of the area and crosses with a standing in line, Dimarco on the opposite side kicks on the fly and Kristensen saves head; The ball takes place and Thuram wins the duel with Kristensen putting her down, the ball arrives in Bisseck there nearby that kicks falling, sava save; The ball is still there, Dumfries arrives and kicks running but Solet moves him to slip, another fray comes and the ball ends up in Barella, which kicks out of the outside, high above the crossbar.
- At 73 ‘there is a stroke of the heel of Pio Esposito – shortly before, welcomed by the San Siro with an ovation worthy of Ronaldo the phenomenon – which on a vertical ball puts Thuram on goal, closed at the last by another inverted Solet.
- At 81 ‘Barella puts in the area a fantastic cross in interior, in the area there are four Udinese players and four of Inter; Pio Esposito made a nice movement to slide behind Kristensen and could hit alone a few meters away, but the cross climbs it and falls on the head of Goglichidze just behind.
- At 85 ‘, on the developments of a lateral remittance in which all Inter had entered the area, sticks is located last man on the midfield disk, loads another intercontinental left launch and puts the ball on the head of Carlos Augustus to yes and no two meters from the edge of the small area: Kristensen’s head and advance on Bisseck.
- A minute later Thuram skips Zemura on the right outside, he arrives in Trequarti and crosses between defense and goalkeeper; In the area there are three Inter players, including Bonny also entered and Pio Esposito who freed himself on the first post, but Thuram’s cross is dirty with Karlstrom and ends up in Sava’s arms.
- At 88 ‘Carlos Augusto deflects a corner kick at the height of the first post, the ball should go out on the side of the second but a Udinese player does not trust and the rise, Bonny makes the bank in the center and Thuram strikes without being able to give strength, Sava parasted again.
- At 94 ‘Zielinski arrives at the shot twice from the edge of the area, the first time he choves the left shot but the second would take the door if Kristensen had not deflected the ball that is passing under his legs, closing his knees at the last moment.
One thing must be called: the brilliance of Inter collided with that of Udinese. With Kristensen’s aerial solidity – ten air duels won – and the concentration of Solet, which at least twice avoided a little, in slip, a close conclusion – on the heel of Pio Esposito, for example, he realizes a moment late what is happening but in any case he finds the resources to anticipate Thuram in slip.
She collided with the excellent game of Keinan Davis and Bayo in attack, and also of Buksa when she entered: all three cleaned up precious balls and won duels against one of the most physical defenses in Europe. But Inter collided, above all, with the elegance and worstiness of Arthur Attra, one centimeter in less than a meter and ninety, which however seem two meters as far as his figure is fine on the pitch.
At 71 ‘, in the moment of maximum Inter -effort, Attera put down a ball in midfield, with the tip of the right foot, he turned and dribbled Bisseck, who arrived behind him, with an external heel shot. Attack says that when he plays the PlayStation he takes Udinese, but he is clogged because he attacks – that is, the attack of Fifa, he intends – is not “too strong”. He certainly does not score goals like the one he scored last night, that of 1-2.
On the goal, after bringing the ball to the edge of the area, attack kicked on the second post, closed in a triangle consisting of three opponents, Bisseck (which perhaps should have faced it before), Acerbi and Barella. The shot shot very little, attacks hit the ball slightly underneath with a part of the foot between the neck and the interior, sending it precisely near the pole farther from Sommer. Attack said that Runjaic asked him to be closer to the opposing door, to score more. He had never scored goal before Serie A, and this is also the sign of Runjaic’s brilliance, which already last season had shown a version of his less gray Udinese than the one with which he then finished the championship.
Inter managed to lose a game in which he scored a splendid goal that seemed like a manifesto of his technical and physical superiority. Sommer serves Barella in a not very precise way in midfield, the ball flows and arrives in Lautaro who jumps Kristensen with a left -handed stroke in the middle of the field. Thuram brings the ball to the edge of the area but does not force the play and enlarges for Dimarco. Dimarco crosses and Thuram controls, behind the door, dribbles, then thigh and then with the interior makes a filter in twenty centimeters of space for Dumfries who fits on the second post.
In these moments it seemed too strong and light an Inter for a team of Daghetani wrestlers like Udinese. But that lightness has vanished in a bubble of superficiality, in the inability to hurt and in the ease of being injured. The brilliance of Inter was frustrated by the broken intervention of Dumfries which caused the rigor of the draw, for a bit of passiveness of Bisseck on the second, but also from some choices and executions less brilliant How much they could have been (take, for example, the two Zielinski shots at the end).
Inter remain one of the most potential teams in Italy and Europe. Able to create choral and airy actions, in which the technique of each of its players is exploited to the maximum. Last night there was a lot of the best of Inter: the finishes of Lautaro and Thuram (and even Pio Esposito), the football capacity of Bastoni and Dimarco, the dynamism and creativity of Barella and Sucic; And Inter even dribbled (11 successful dribbling and 15 attempted) that was the single thing that was missing in past seasons. But it was enough to frustrate everything.
Antonio Conte after the game with Cagliari said that his team had played in any case a good game, that he would also be happy with the 0-0, if the goal of Anguissa had not arrived a few breaths from the end. The question after Inter-Udinese is: can Christian Chivu be happy with the defeat?
