Diego Milito scored twice to end Juventus’s 49-match unbeaten Serie A run on Saturday and lift Inter Milan to within a point of the Serie A leaders.
This was an impressive win by Inter and their young manager Andrea Stramaccioni as Inter kept their composure and overcame more horrendous refereeing. Besides conceding an obvious goal inside the opening minutes that was clearly offside, the referee followed that up by not sending Juventus player Lichtsteiner off inside the opening 30 minutes. I wondered is this was not going to be Inter’s day. But the team showed great poise and character to stay in the game and not let their heads go down.
The seeds for the Inter victory were sown before the match when Strama shocked most pundits and stuck to his principles and played three up-front. Everyone had expected Inter to go defensive, but Stramaccioni showed with Inter is the anti-Juventus and stuck with the formation and type of football that has served Inter so well this season.
There was also a practical part to Strama’s tactics. By playing with three forwards, Inter forced Juventus to pull a wide player back, which they did with Caceres, and that freed up room for Inter to attack down their left, which they did time and time again.
I thought that Inter’s counter-attacking football was terrific. The speed that they attacked the Juventus defence caused them problems all day and fittingly all three Inter goals came on the counter.
With the win Inter moved to within a point of Juventus at the top of the league. I think it is too early to say that Inter can keep up with Juventus and Napoli all season, but the revival of Inter Milan under Andrea Stramaccioni will make the title race a little more interesting.