Inter secured a 2-0 win over city rivals Milan in the Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday and now the Nerazzurri are surprisingly the closest team to the Istanbul Final, writes Stephen Kasiewicz.
Even the most upbeat of Italian football advocates would have baulked at the prospect of Inter competing in this season’s Champions League Final. Yet the Nerazzurri took a giant leap towards the continent’s showpiece match after a stunning two-goal triumph over city rivals Milan in the first leg of Wednesday night’s captivating semi-final tie.
Neither the highly touted, lavishly funded behemoths of Real Madrid and Manchester City are certain of a place in Istanbul after an enthralling stalemate punctuated by two spectacular goals in the Spanish capital. Inter nearly secured a berth in the tournament’s Finale in a barnstorming opening period as they pressurised and suffocated the Rossoneri into a meek submission.
Coach Simone Inzaghi has been lambasted as the Nerazzurri lurched from one lamentable defeat to another in a Serie A campaign littered with inconsistent profligacy. Talked up as title challengers before the league campaign began Inter have stumbled to a startling 11 defeats and sit fourth in the Classifica.
However, the former Lazio tactician has proven a shrewd strategist at the peak of the European game.
The 47-year-old impressively navigated Inter past Portuguese giants Porto and Benfica, implementing effective schemes to coax the very best from a versatile squad rich in talent and experience.
He delivered again in an astonishing first-half masterclass that threatened to become a rout amid a cacophony of red and black Tifosi at San Siro. Two ahead after just 11 minutes through Edin Džeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, it was almost all over when Hakan Çalhanoğlu rattled the post.
Inter’s up-tempo, high-press game plan flustered a sluggish Milan who were forced into copious basic errors.
Although the Rossoneri were unlucky not to reduce the deficit when Sandro Tonali struck the woodwork after the break they never fully recovered from the early bludgeoning. Inter hold a significant advantage going into next Tuesday’s second leg and barring an incredible upset will return to the Champions League Final for the first time since winning the competition in 2010.
In the ever-fluctuating, often perplexing world of Calcio a sensational Milan turnaround cannot be completely ruled out, especially if talismanic winger Rafael Leao returns from injury. It seems improbable but even a fortune teller secretly wearing a blue and black striped shirt would not have foreseen Inter in such a privileged position.
The fact that Serie A will be represented in the Champions League Final is proof alone of a renaissance, however transitory, for the top Italian clubs in a competition dominated by big-spending monoliths in recent years.
Holders Real Madrid and Manchester City operate on another financial planet with bottomless pits of cash. Despite their extortionately assembled multi-million Euro squads packed with megastars, both real and imagined, neither is closer to the final than Inter.
It cannot be disputed that whoever emerges victorious at the Etihad Stadium next week will be clear favourites to claim European football’s most prestigious trophy.
Yet the resurgence of Calcio has at least stemmed the flow of a vapid, narrow-minded and ill-informed narrative that Italian clubs cannot cut it against the continent’s elite. Under Inzaghi Inter have shown that they should not be dismissed or downgraded regardless of the circumstances or opposition.
@SKasiewicz