Inter v Napoli: Inter Avoid Complete Collapse
By: Martha | October 6th, 2007
Inter strolled through the first half of this one, up 2-0 after 36 minutes thanks to two smooth finishes by Julio Cruz (who is doing is best to make me stop hating him). Really, it should have been three and could have been four shortly thereafter, with Cruz putting the ball wide to miss his easiest chance of the night, and a point-blank Ibrahimovic shot stopped by a miraculous Gennaro Iezzo save. Misses aside, though, they looked last last year’s Inter for much of the half, keeping the ball easily and spraying it around the midfield practically at will.
In the second half, Napoli were much better, pressuring Inter more all over the pitch and pouring forward on the flanks; that, combined with Inter’s decision to sit back and not chase a third goal left Napoli with a ton of possession, albeit without a lot of shots on goal. Whenever the ball was at Ezequiel Lavezzi’s ridiculously skilled feet, though, they were threatening, and as Inter got more careless with the ball, Napoli moved forward with increasing confidence, causing Julio Cesar some nervy moments.
The substiution of CENTRAL DEFENDER Nicholas Burdisso for Dejan Stankovic in the midfield did nothing for Inter’s comfort level, nor did substitute David Suazo’s bottling of a gilt-edge chance with 10 minutes left in the game. Things were getting decidedly hairy for the Nerazzurri, particularly in the middle of the pitch, and it was really no surprise when Napoli grabbed a goal back in the 85th minute. Happily for Inter fans (not that there are any around here), they managed to pull it together for the last few minutes, Suazo’s and Figo’s experience showing in their ability to fall down draw fouls, and Zlatan’s in his ability to dribble through the entire Napoli defense, even though they were all standing within four yards of him. Seriously, it was amazing. He got a standing ovation for it.
Also:
•Cesar’s work rate is completely absurd. He’s part of every attack, plays great balls in to the strikers, and made several important stops in the defensive end. And sometimes, he was running extra, just for fun — the guy is just loving this bizarre second life he’s earned himself at the age of 31.
•Oh my god Lavezzi looks like Pee-Wee Herman.
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Comments
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Really Martha? You saw Inter struggling in the 2nd half? To me, Napoli were never really dangerous except for a small chance of Savini that the Napoli player messed up with a shot wide.
The Sosa goal came out of nowhere, and even then Inter didn’t suffer a whole lot in the ensuing 10 minutes. For me it was just a one-team game for 80 minutes, but I gotta agree with you on Cesar (an amazing renewal for Mancini this yer) and Zlatan (DUH!).
Posted from
United States
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Well, I definitely watch Inter with a very critical eye, Marco, but I saw them giving the ball away far too easily in the midfield in the second half, yeah — they were trying to kill the game off by taking the pace out of it, but they need to keep the ball better to do that. (Like I said, though, I’m way more critical of Inter than I am of other teams, so I probably make it seem worse than it was.)
It’ll be interesting to see who in the midfield goes when Maicon comes back (one more game I think) and Zanetti is moved back up — based on play right now, it ought to be Stankovic but I’m worried Cesar will lose his place ..
Posted from
United States -
I think we will prolly see Figo relegated to the bench when Maicon gets back, even if it is Stan that needs to be there. I would have liked to see Inter holding onto the ball more in the second half but they rarely risked much.
Posted from
Canada
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