Inter v Parma: Jesus Effing Christ

By: Martha | January 20th, 2008

Andrea Gasbarron Jesus Christ, talk about unjust — Parma absolutely had that game won, and fully deserved the three points. Inter were utter rubbish for most of the match, giving the ball away all over the pitch and not really bothering to defend with anything resembling organization, while Parma were making life difficult, defending well for once, and effectively closing off the space in their defensive third. And, when they got the ball, they were almost always a threat, particularly as the game wore on and Inter pushed more bodies forward.

Inter did dominate the first five minutes and were unlucky not to go into the lead, but Parma settled down quickly and, though Inter probably had the majority of the possession in the first half, after the open they never looked like a team nearly 30 points ahead of their rivals. The visitors had a legit penalty shout waved away in the 20th minute, when a wrestling match in the box ended up with Ivan Ramiro Cordoba lying on top of the much, much bigger Bernardo Corradi, but even without the penalty being given, Julio Cesar had some very nervous moments in goal (at least one of them caused by his own lack of concentration).

Esteban Cambiasso put Inter ahead on the half-hour mark with his third goal in three Serie A matches, thanks to Parma’s one defensive lapse. The ball popped out to him at the edge of the box and he lashed it through the mass of bodies in front of him, beating an at least partially unsighted Luca Bucci — absolutely fantastic in the match — who could do nothing about it. But before the halftime whistle blew, Parma had deservedly drawn level. Reginaldo all but laughed in Marco Materazzi’s face as he ran at him up the right side, and his cross found the on-rushing Luca Cigarini, who was in acres of space left Julio Cesar no chance.

In the second half, Parma were even better, and dominated for long stretches. There was a feeling they were going to take the lead even before ancient Fernando Couto headed a corner off the base of the post, only to have Cesar (the scawny winger, not the keeper) save it off the line, and they made their clear superiority count with about 20 minutes left, after yet another awful Materazzi tackle gave away a free kick deep on the left. Substitute Andrea Gasbarroni stepped up and beat Julio Cesar at his near post, and it looked for all the world like Parma were leaving Milan with all three pints.

Then, two minutes from time, everything fell apart, and all of Domenica Sportiva tonight will doubtless be dedicated to showing replays of the Couto “handball” from every possible angle. After several hundred replays, I have no idea whether it was or not, but that’s not the kind of thing you want anyone to call just in case it happened, and a dodgy penalty (put away by Zlatan Ibrahimovic who, apart from a few moments early, was embarrassing all night, in terms of both play and behavior) was a shitty way for Parma to lose their hard-won lead. And being beaten deep in injury time with nine men on the pitch thanks to a questionable red card and an injury is beyond awful. Hopefully it’ll galvanize Parma for the second half rather than make them all kill themselves, but at the end of the match, it seemed pretty much like a push.