Inter Milan followed their fellow Italian teams’ path in the Champions League as just like AC Milan and AS Roma, the Nerazzurri also taste defeat on their European encounter at home this midweek.
Playing in a revenge setup fixture,Inter left themselves in the back foot after suffering a 1-0 loss against German side, Bayern Muenchen, which they beat last season in the competition’s final.
Playing in front of their fans with most of their first team players back, Inter actually put out a pretty good fight despite failing to control the midfield area in the whole game, concentrating their attacking play more from Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder’s brilliance. However, being the defending champion and playing in front of their home crowd, the Nerazzurri managed to pull out some great goal scoring chances, notably from Esteban Cambiasso, who can’t seem to find the net on the game.
Meanwhile, the away team themselves also create more than enough chances to ensure that they do deserved something from the game especially since they also had more of the ball possession and looked more threatening overall. Unfortunately, there’s seem a bit lack of sharpness from the Bayern’s striker especially in the first half that made then unable to create more chances than they should have, resulting the first period ended with a stalemate.
In the second period, the course of the game didn’t change a lot as the away team still have more of the ball possession but just like Inter, their overdependent on Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery to create an attacking moves, kinda make them predictable at times. This pretty much suited the Nerazzurri’s defense that kept on doubling their marking on the away team’s two dangerous wing players, as they also surged forward with their own playing style.
Just like what happened to Milan, the tragedy for Inter also happened right before the game ended and curiously on the moment where they actually able to consistently pressuring Bayern by forcing them to defend consecutive corners and free kicks. However, tired legs and lack of concentration by the home team defenders allowed Robben to fire in a blistering shot that can’t be held by the Nerazzurri’s keeper, Julio Cesar, spilling it only to be hammered by Mario Gomez’s close range pouch just a minute before the 90 minutes end.
The defeat puts Inter’s chance on qualifying into the next round is in big danger as they will have to play the second leg away from home, more than that this also give a bad sign for Italian football as all of their representatives were defeated at home. Still is there’s always a chance for all of those teams, including the Nerazzurri, although Leonardo’s team seems to have the toughest task, simply because their supposedly facing a very strong team that knows how to control the game.
Match Reports:
Inter v Bayern 0-1
Goals: Gomez 90 (Bayern)
Inter: Julio Cesar; Maicon, Ranocchia (Kharja 73), Lucio, Chivu; Zanetti, Cambiasso, Thiago Motta; Sneijder, Stankovic; Eto’o
Bayern Munich: Kraft; Lahm, Tymoshchuk, Badstuber, Pranjic (Breno 37); Schweinsteiger, Luiz Gustavo; Robben, Muller, Ribery; Gomez