At the end of the match Chivu was ready with the list of things in which Arsenal were superior to Inter: «They were stronger in intensity, in speed technique, in occupation of the pitch, in ideas in attacking the lines with a lot of speed, with intensity, in the second balls also […] and then they have structure, they have physicality, they have quality and also the right changes to put you in difficulty.”
Put like this, the final result, 1-3 at home, in a match that Inter had to win for ranking but also psychological reasons, seems more than fair. Inevitable.
On the eve of the match, Chivu had said he wanted to “dispel a taboo”, but perhaps he had chosen the wrong match, the wrong opponent. Only two goals conceded in 7 games (including Sucic’s), first place in the table and full points – which will probably mean 8 wins in 8 games after the last day when they face Kairat at home.
Too strong and that’s it? Yet Arsenal’s situation in the standings and the absences of some more or less important players – Odegaard, Calafiori, Hincapié, Declan Rice, Gyokeres, Gabriel Magalhaes – had given rise to hopes that perhaps Inter could at least interrupt their streak of consecutive victories. And then, it wasn’t really the ability to do something more to close the gap with teams like Bayern Munich and Barcelona, the secret that had brought Inter to the Champions League final last year, for the second time in three seasons? Was it an illusion, is the magic over?
Inter conceded two shots in the first twenty seconds, directly from kick-off: they lost two aerial duels and Bastoni and Zielinski countered the two shots from Lewis-Kelly and Merino. In the first minute and a half of the match Sommer had already missed two long throws and after a minute and forty Saka moves behind Dimarco and Bastoni and arrives at the very dangerous cross for Gabriel Jesus, moved at the last minute by Akanji.
This is an action that says much more about Inter’s lack of intensity and reactivity, rather than Arsenal’s technical or physical qualities.
On a so-so throw from Sommer, Dimarco runs behind Merino who anticipates him, Bastoni is high and Sucic takes a while to read the coverage on Saka, who calmly arrives at the cross. Akanji’s intervention scores a goal.
Inter appeared in Raya’s area for the first time after thirteen minutes, and at that point they were already losing 0-1. And the strategies of the two teams were now quite clear.
Arsenal was emerging without too much stress from Inter’s pressure (to tell the truth, never too ferocious, perhaps also because they knew, or understood after a few minutes, that their opponents would pass them with quality) by changing sides of the pitch, playing both on either side of the midfield trio Barella-Zielinski-Sucic, and then going behind them, between the lines.
The goal action is emblematic. It starts with a reception by Eze on the left side, in the middle of the Barella-Luis Henrique-Zielinski triangle; change of field to the right and then back to the center, where Lewis-Kelly also came between the lines together with Merino. Then Arsenal were a bit lucky with the rebounds – Luis Henrique kept Gabriel Jesus in play and Acerbi looked at him rather than marking him – but it wasn’t the first time that Arsenal’s dribbling caused Inter to collapse with 7 players inside their penalty area.
Inter were too unaggressive, too passive, in the minutes that led to Arsenal’s lead. Arteta’s team has lowered its block and if even in Serie A Inter have problems defending the penalty area let alone against a lynx like Gabriel Jesus or a velociraptor like Saka.
However, lowering and extending the field was also convenient for Chivu’s strategy, entirely based on the ability of Lautaro and Thuram to win their duels to attack in the most direct way possible. And this is how Inter got their first chances, with a nice hook movement from Thuram – with Lautaro pulling out Saliba from three lines and leaving him in a one-on-one with Mosquera – and then with a nice run from Luis Henrique, again launched by Thuram.
Lautaro’s meeting movements were fundamental not only in creating doubts for Saliba, but also in those cases in which he managed to receive and make the Nerazzurri’s maneuver slightly less direct. As the minutes passed, Inter managed to consolidate some possession, which led them to recover some high balls (thanks also to the aggressiveness of Dimarco, in difficulty with Saka and Timber when there was a need to run backwards but always useful when pressing forward) and to lower the opponent’s line of pressure.
Sucic’s goal arises from a situation that we often see in Serie A: four-man construction with the playmaker (Zielinski) lowering himself onto the central defense line, Dimarco remaining blocked and Bastoni rising in the middle space. When Bastoni receives, Lautaro moves away to his side and plays a delightful ball for Thuram. The rest is “technique at speed” as Chivu says, and the ability to react and improvise: Thuram kicks and ends up on the ground, but then manages the recovered ball with quality, Barella tries a drill that only he could imagine, Lewis-Kelly clears it and Sucic puts it in from the edge of the area not far from the top corner.
Before the 1-2 goal (19th of the season which Arsenal scored from a corner, the result of Nicolas Jover’s extraordinary work but also of the tremendous ease with which Saka missed Dimarco simply by opening the gas) Inter even had the opportunity to take the lead, with an action started by Acerbi’s first advance on Gabriel Jesus with his back to goal.
And then from a caramel finish from Lautaro, who comes towards him bringing Saliba with him, he turns to the right and, still using the right winger, launches Sucic deep.
Here Sucic could have done better without too much difficulty, having reached the edge of the area he had both the pass to Thuram and the one to Barella who had cut behind him and was completely free. But he holds the ball too much and when he passes it to Thuram the angle is very narrow and Thuram kicks practically from a standstill, overbalancing himself to look for the near post.
In the first half, the game Inter wanted was played, and in any case they lost it. Chivu said that in the second Arsenal played with greater “humility”, “they dropped a bit”.
The fact is that the debate between “players” and “sultsmen” only exists in Italy, in reality no coach wants to give advantages to their opponents and Arteta’s Arsenal is one of the teams with the most defensive attention in Europe. And she is also one of the best at attacking in transition, when needed or when she wants.
In the second half, Inter started to lose energy – playing in a direct way, with a lot of pitch to move up each time, defending for long phases at the edge of their own area, has the side effect of tiring the players – and in the sixty-first minute only a miracle from Bastoni in a slide prevented Saka from bringing the score to 1-3. The action originated from a long throw from Raya which bounced into Inter’s half of the pitch, split in two, with the five defenders close together and the rest of the team scattered across the pitch.
Acerbi heads it and Gabriel Jesus recovers the second ball. Then both Akanji and Acerbi stop and Saka (momentarily on the left) cuts behind them. Bastoni keeps him in play but covers with the slide.
Chivu then makes the changes. Lautaro exits very tired and Pio Esposito enters who, honestly, without any desire to further pump up his hype, plays a sumptuous portion of the match, winning every duel with both Mosquera and Gabriel Magalhaes, coming close to equalizing in the 67th minute with a chest control and a turn shot like a late nineteenth century center forward (it’s a compliment, obviously). Barella also leaves and continues to struggle to be incisive in the finishing phase (not just his fault, as on the occasion of Sucic’s action).
Inter regained some of the field and returned to the game in the ten minutes preceding Gyokeres’ goal, resulting from a corner kick in which Inter was unbalanced forward, but also from a Martinelli throw from the outside and from a conclusion from Gyokeres, let’s say, not trivial.
It is clear that Arsenal had a superiority that was difficult to equalize. And it is clear that Arsenal exploited that superiority in the decisive moments of the match. While giving the impression of still having a few gears to climb, without ever seeming really out of trouble. But it is equally clear that Inter paid what they paid in other such high-level matches.
The carelessness of a defense in difficulty both in defending by running backwards and when it drops too low; the passivity of his middle block, around which, and within which, Arsenal found it too easy to play in the first part of the match; an endemic inaccuracy in the final metres, perhaps also caused by the lack of clarity with which players who have run at breakneck speed for fifty or more meters of the pitch arrive at the shot.
But I would also add the difficulty with which Inter changes pace. The thing that perhaps made the difference last year in this type of match. For goodness sake, there wasn’t a semi-final or a final up for grabs, but Inter’s fuse never really catches fire, it always remains a little slowed down, perhaps unsure of how much to push on the accelerator pedal. Italian football lives under the illusion that moments of matches and even entire seasons can be controlled. It doesn’t work in Serie A, let alone in the Champions League.
The terrible defeat in last year’s final had made people think that Inter were at the end of their cycle. But Chivu insisted in Inzaghi’s footsteps, despite changing something from a tactical point of view and the players used. However, perhaps a stronger change is needed and it seems inevitable that next summer Inter will have to rethink itself in a more decisive way. There remains one match to hope to qualify directly for the round of 16, in the meantime, and not complicate the season with an extra round. The calculations, it goes without saying, are done in the end.
