Udinese v Inter: Goalless

By: Martha | January 27th, 2008

Pussy When Cesar was went off in the 21st minute after two yellows in quick succession, it looked like it was going to be a long day for Inter, particularly since Udine had been the more threatening team even when it was 11 v 11. Instead, Inter turned in their first good defensive effort since Christmas and more than held their own, particularly in the second half — it was the visitors who had a goal called back for a dubious foul and, though they had less possession, Inter were the ones who went close more often. Udine put in a lot of dangerous crosses and forced a couple of alert saves from Julio Cesar, but their frequent long attempts were wasteful, and in the last 45 minutes the home side rarely made their man advantage count.

Udine were full of confidence from the start, playing at home against a team incapable of beating them even when not affected by injuries, and they took control of the game early. Fabio Quagliarella and Antonio Di Natale were always threatening with the latter particularly sharp, while the former alternated between rolling around on the ground in agony and shooting from long range, which must have been at least a little frustrating to his teammates, since most of the shots missed by a wide margin. Oddly, when Cesar was sent off, it looked like Inter’s fury at the red card pulled them together — they didn’t necessarily play with any more coherence than they had in the first 20 minutes, but there was a toughness and determination to their play that has been lacking for a lot of the season.

The visitors made it through the first half unscathed and came out better organized and more settled in the second, pushing forward and almost going into the lead through Zlatan Ibrahimovic on two different occasions. Udine, meanwhile, flew the other way each time an Inter attack broke down but could never quite get it right; the Inter defense played well for the first time since Walter Samuel went down, and Julio Cesar was alert coming off his line to intercept potentially threatening crosses. Despite that, however, the home side did have their chances, with Di Natale in particular testing Julio Cesar, and attacking with real purpose and speed nearly every time he had the ball at his feet.

Surprisingly, shortly after replacing Julio Cruz with the much, much more defensive (not to mention older, and slower) Patrick Vieira, Roberto Mancini pulled Esteban Cambiasso for Hernan Crespo, pushing for the win even with only 10 men. (It didn’t work.)

Udine will be frustrated not to have taken full points after having a man advantage for well over and hour, while Inter, despite sure frustration over the sending off, are probably fairly happy with the result. The most pleased, of course, are Roma who, with their win yesterday, move within five points of Inter at the top of the table.