Romelu Lukaku was on target, but Inter suffered a heavy 4-2 defeat to Villarreal in a pre-season friendly that showed a serious weakness in conceding counter-attacks.
Simone Inzaghi had to do without injured Marcelo Brozovic and his absence was keenly felt in midfield, replaced by new signing Kristjan Asllani.
Played at the Stadio Adriatico in Pescara, Villarreal took the lead when Alfonso Pedraza was left totally unmarked for a fine volley off the outside of the boot.
Lukaku equalised by nodding in the Robin Gosens cross, aided by a shaky Geronimo Rulli attempt to flap it away, but Francis Coquelin restored the advantage after Asllani gave the ball away cheaply.
Villarreal went 3-1 up, as Pedraza got away from Milan Skriniar and his cross-shot surprised Samir Handanovic at the dawn of the second half.
Handanovic did better on Alex Baena’s header, and Danilo D’Ambrosio got another back by nodding in a Federico Dimarco cross.
Nicolas Jackson completed the rout on another counter-attack, this time sparked by a Tucu Correa mistake.
Inter 2-4 Villarreal
Pedraza 29, 48 (V), Lukaku 36 (I), Coquelin 43 (V), D’Ambrosio 66 (I), Jackson 81 (V)
Inter: Handanovic; Skriniar (D’Ambrosio 62),De Vrij, Bastoni (Darmian 54); Dumfries (Bellanova 62), Barella (Gagliardini 69), Asllani, Calhanoglu (Mkhitaryan 54), Gosens (Dimarco 54); Lukaku (Dzeko 69), Lautaro Martinez (Correa 69)
Villarreal: Rulli; Foyth, Albiol (Mandi 70), Pau Torres (Cuenca 70), A Pedraza (Estupinan 61); Coquelin (Morales 61), Capoue, Dani Parejo; Yeremy (Chukwueze 61), Álex Baena (Morlanes 79), N Jackson
Would be a good friendly exposing those issues, was it not a week before season kick-off…
Definitely still lacking some grinta and composure there, but when it comes down to it, we’ll see.
Bad performance with a couple of bright spots, Asllani looked really good and Gosens is getting more confidence… Everyone else was disappointing, and there was hardly any creativity or unpredictability… and our defence is slow, Leao would rip us apart if we play like this….
I thought Villareal were a pushover team? Based on all the Interisti comments last season in the CL, you would think so. Good thing this was just a friendly or it could have been more.
Officialy, Inter friendlies were disaster.
We will not be able to pursue all 3 competitions just like last season. Had Dybala and Bremer came, plus Kostic, we’ll be have more weaponry than current roster offered.
Inzaghi is a coach for small clubs, like Sarri.
Hahahaha
Where is Lord Allegri the inter mascot to explain why his team capitulated to Spanish minnows?
Never a fan of inzaghi, his Lazio team can conceived goals like inter is doing including last season. Inzaghi cost inter the title last season. The Conte effect is leaving the team to inzaghi Lazy football. To agility or humility.
Looks like forrign players gave not been the investment stallwarts that clib management thinks they are.
Perhaps Seria A clubs should sign Italian academy youth talent.
What a disgrace by Seria A and Seria A club management!
No agility or humility from the players. Still slow 🐌
Nothing makes all the Jube trolls cream more than Inter’s results on preseason friendlies
Let me repeat it, preseason friendlies
but of course, what do they know about preseason friendlies
See you when the season starts
Cypher
The same Spanish minnows who destroyed juve in Turin last season you mean ?
@INTERRAGE
They are still hurting from their 0 titoli season, especially having lost 2 trophies to Inter.
4 Italian teams could not beat the Spanish teams and they were just the average sides, something is still wrong with Italian football. Wonder if the Italian sides were all Italian nationals they could actually be better at football overall.
Where are all of these Inter haters going to be next week after Inter beats Lecce by 4 goals minimum?
INTERRAGEsays
This is just friendly match
I’ve noticed lately that people in the comments section are talking about the clubs stopping buying foreign players. I think it is a bit unnecessary to single out foreigners in the league. It should be an honor that people from all over the world want to come and play in Italy. I know people want to blame someone for the recent failures of the national team and the league in general. The blame for those failures in my opinion should be directed at Italian politicians and the leadership of the League, not “foreigners”
It seems people are more concerned about whether or not inter win or lose in friendlies. It’s basically half a match with the amount of changes that happens in the second half. What’s true however it’ll be hard to stop both Lautaro and Lukaku upfront. Inter friendlies showed that Correa and Dzeko are useless if they play together Inter can’t score. Avoiding injuries was priority number one and it was clear in the match now that the season will be starting soon Dzeko-Correa sub will hopefully stop happening although it’s alarming to see that it continued to happen after every friendly match despite not working.
Inter fans must be shaking.
Their broke Chinese owners can’t afford to bring them to the next level.
Juve will recuperate from disaster transfers like Ramsey, Arthur, Bernardeschi and Rabiot and take back the throne for a new era starting this year.
Juve era = 9 years
Inter era = 9 months
Inzaghi is a second rate coach at best.
Inters team is barely top 20 in Europe, but surely better than Villarreal.
Either way inter will struggle next season with a garbage coach and an incredibly weak mercato.
@Carl, there needs to be clarity on this subject. Is it simply foreigners, the number of foreigners, or the overall quality of the foreigners?
I don’t have a problem with foreign players. What I do have a problem with is a, the number of Italian players representing their league has dropped from approx 30% in just over a decade. It’s now down to roughly 35%. This isn’t healthy. I wouldn’t want this happen to ANY country. I also have a problem with the quality of some foreign players. We see so many young promising Italians not being given a chance, being kept out by expensive mediocre foreign players such as Rabiot.
I blame the league, the clubs, and perhaps most of all, the DOF’s and coaches.