Inter v Udinese: Sigh.

By: Martha | August 26th, 2007

Go Ibra. Is it a bad sign that, as an Inter fan watching this match, my main reaction (apart from “It’s really disgusting how easy this game is for Ibra”) was “Wow, Udine are pretty good”? I’m thinking yes. Inter dominated possession until Julio Cesar turned stupid and got himself sent off, and Udinese’s goal was scored by Ivan Cordoba, but the northern club still fully deserved their point, and maybe more.

Early on, Inter didn’t look bad — Stankovic seemed fully recovered from whatever it was that made him so sucky against Roma and was everywhere, Ibrahimovic was his usual ludicrously skilled self, and the defense was oddly stable-looking. The goal came early, off a lovely bit of skill from Ibra, who played Stankovic into a angle from which he probably shouldn’t have scored, but the Serb snuck the ball inside the post and Inter looked to be strolling into a big day.

Despite keeping the ball practically the entire half, though, the final ball was missing pretty much all the time for Inter (insert comment on the uselessness of playing Figo as an attacking midfielder here), and Udinese were freaking terrifying on the counter. The combination of Quagliarella, Asamoah (he, in particular, scared the crap out of me — he had a shot on the turn that was just sick) and Floro Flores was always dangerous, and they seemed to have Inter’s goal at their mercy with practically every attack. Frankly, it was a miracle that they didn’t tie the game before halftime.

In the second half Udine seemed to have cooled off a bit, but apart from all the chances Julio Cruz blew, Inter never looked likely to extend their lead. And everything fell apart in the 57th minute when Julio Cesar spectacularly misjudged a long ball and committed a blatant handball outside his area. (Like, really blatant. He didn’t even wait for the red card — just started walking off the pitch.) At that point, the combination of being a man down and Roberto Mancini’s utterly bizarre substitutions — Cristian Chivu made his Inter debut as a midfielder, and things were such a mess that Ibrahimovic was the one clearing the ball out of the box half the time — resulted in utter chaos, and it was only a matter of time before Udine scored.

If Inter don’t convincingly beat Empoli next week, Mancini will become this year’s Carlo Ancelotti: The man whose job every unemployed coach on earth is reportedly about to get.