Inter v Torino: Still Rolling, Somehow

By: Martha | December 9th, 2007

A ho-down in the Inter box. It’s amazing how many goals Inter can score even when they’re not looking very good. They didn’t create many chances against Torino today, but still ended up with a 4-0 win, most of the goals down to just taking advantage of chances that were handed to them.

In the first half, Toro were very much up to the task and, had Nicola Ventola not been having a shocker, they would have been up 1-0. Since he was, though, he failed to make good contact with a cross when he was standing in the box, all alone, and left Julio Cesar breathing a sigh of relief. While the visitors were by no means laying siege to the Inter goal, they were consistently getting in behind the defense (which featured Marco Materazzi from the start for the first time all season, and a random rotation of bodies on the left), and certainly gave the hosts reason to be nervous.

At the other end, Inter had a couple of close-range chances saved by Matteo Sereni’s legs, but certainly weren’t attacking with much conviction. They got the on the scoreboard just before half, though, when the referee whistled Gianluca Comotto for a bad-looking challenge on Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It looked much better in slow-motion, though, and was definitely a harsh, if understandable, decision. Zlatan barely managed to sneak the ball under Sereni, and Inter went into the half with a fortunate 1-0 lead.

At the start of the second half, Roberto Mancini brought on Luis Jimenez, who seemed to wake things up a bit for Inter, and they looked more lively in attack. The second goal came thanks to poor Torino defending (a reoccurring second-half theme), and Julio Cruz just walked onto a Cristian Chivu cross and nodded it into the goal. Then, just minutes later, Jimenez jumped on a loose ball outside the box and crushed it first-time just inside the post; the goal locked down the game in the 52nd minute, and Torino had to have been wondering what the hell happened, because they’d been playing well.

After Jimenez’s goal, though, it was all Inter. They took all the pace out of the match and spent the next 35 minutes knocking the ball around between the midfield and the backs until they gave it away. And, when they did, Torino would either give it right back, or play it over the top, beat the offside trip, and find either Esteban Cambiasso or Ivan Cordoba standing in the way. And, to add insult to injury, Inter grabbed a late fourth through Cordoba on a corner that Toro failed to clear.

Even the additions of Roberto Stellone and Inter-owned (and loved) Alvaro Recoba couldn’t save Torino, though the latter’s arrival did bring some creativity to the team, and they had two good chances late-on, including a close-range header than went off the bar. The final scoreline was hard on Torino, but they left the door open a few times and were made to pay. (And next weekend, they host Roma. Yikes.)