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Mid afternoon on Sunday 23rd October saw week 8 of Inter’s Serie A campaign and Ranieri sent the same team out on to the pitch at the Meazza that won earlier in the week in the Champions league game against Lille, having the same effect by securing another 1-0 result for the Nerazzurri.
Again there were many good signs that Inter are getting back on track with Ranieri once again using the 4-3-1-2 formation that works so well for our squad. Ahead of Julio Cesar in goal, he had Lucio and Chivu in the central defensive positions with the Romanian again covering for the injured Samuel. Maicon and Nagatomo played on either side of them, using their skills as wingbacks to surge forward to add an extra dimension to the attack, while the defensive midfield three of Zanetti, Cambiasso and Motta covered the defensive line and also supported the attack which consisted of Sneijder in the hole behind Pazzini and Zarate. This is proving to be a useful set up for us and I’ll be interested to see how it will work when the injured pair of Poli and Forlan return to probably replace Motta and Zarate in this line up.FIRST HALF -
Before the kick off there was a minute’s silence in honour of the MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli, who died earlier in the day during the Malaysian GP in Sepang. The game started with both sides probing to find a weakness in the other side, but it was the Nerazzurri forwards that were taking the limelight with Pazzini playing a clever backheel and making various runs in to Chievo’s penalty area while Zarate too was proving dangerous by using his skill to find spaces and get himself into one on one situations with the Chievo goalkeeper Sorrentino.Chievo reacted by staying compact and cautious in their defensive third. The 19th minute saw a left footed shot from Zarate stopped after a nice ball in by Maicon. Three minutes later, Zanetti and Motta played a nice move that was cut out just inside the box by Chievo’s Jokic. This was shortly followed by the ‘Flying Donkeys’ getting a break leading to Hetemaj’s right footed shot being stopped by Julio Cesar.
Inter’s confidence was starting to show itself when on the half hour mark Sneijder cut in from the left before launching a powerful right footed shot towards the top left corner to see it just sail wide of the post. Three minutes later the Dutchman had another chance as Sorrentino turned away one of his trademark free kicks to give the home side a corner. This was to be the decisive point of the game as Sneijder sent in the ball from the corner, Thiago Motta rose to head the ball home and break the deadlock. The goal gave the Nerazzurri a boost and before the end of the half Pazzini, Zarate and Sneijder all had chances to double Inter’s lead, but with no time added to the end of the half the teams went to the dressing rooms with the score at 1-0.
SECOND HALF –
There were no changes during half time. Yet again after coming out from the midway point of a game, Inter nearly gave away the equalizer when Lucio passed the ball back to Julio Cesar just to see him send the ball straight to Paloschi who wasted no time shooting to take advantage of the Inter keeper being out of position. Luckily for us though Chivu was there to get rid of the ball up field.
In the 57th minute, Maicon, who had been a thorn in the Chievo defence’s side for most of the match, sent a right footed power drive just off target. But Chievo were determined not to just sit back and take defeat as both Vacek and then Pellissier had chances denied. The 65th minute saw Zanetti, Zarate and Pazzini produce a wonderfully skillful move but Pazzo was closed down well by Morero. More skill from Inter followed as Maicon and Pazzini played a lovely one-two resulting in another shot from our Brazilian wingback but the ball kept on rising and it went harmlessly over the bar.
In the 65th minute Ranieri decided that it was time to give Sneijder a rest ahead of the mid-week match up against Atalanta and brought on Stankovic as his replacement. Eight minutes later, Maicon again let rip with a powerful shot that rattled the crossbar and could quite have easily been the second goal for the Nerazzurri. Three minutes after that saw Deki have a shot that hit Frey’s right arm and Stankovic called for a penalty, but rightly the referee judged that the Chievo player had been trying to avoid contact.
Castaignos came on for Inter on the 78 minute mark to replace Pazzini in an attempt to try to find something a bit different to throw at the Chievo defence. In the 81st minute he had a chance after being set up by Stankovic but it was a chance wasted as he seemed to be memorised by Sorrentino when it came to the one on one. Shortly after that, Julio Cesar had to be alert to stop a shot from Moscardelli, and with four minutes to go Stankovic went close as his shot went wide. Five minutes of added time saw Inter really pushing to make sure they secured their first home win of the campaign and in the end did enough to win the match with the one goal difference.
INTER 1-0 CHIEVO (HT: 1-0)
Scorers: Motta 34.
Referee: Domenico Celi (Campobasso).Bookings: Motta 31, Jokic 35, Maicon 43, Vacek 55.Added time: 0 + 5 minutes.Spectators: 48,058.
Lineups
Inter:
1 Julio Cesar; 13 Maicon, 6 Lucio, 26 Chivu, 55 Nagatomo; 4 Zanetti, 19 Cambiasso, 8 Motta; 10 Sneijder (Stankovic 66); 7 Pazzini (Castaignos 78), 28 Zarate (Obi 90)Unused subs: 12 Castellazzi, 2 Cordoba, 42 Jonathan, 22 Milito.Coach: Claudio Ranieri.
Chievo:
54 Sorrentino; 21 Frey, 4 Morero, 12 Cesar, 13 Jokic; 25 Vacek (Rigoni 83), 6 Bradley, 56 Hetemaj (Thereau 61); 8 Cruzado; 23 Paloschi (Moscardelli 66), 31 PellissierUnused subs: 17 Puggioni, 3 Andreolli, 5 Mandelli, 7 Sammarco.Coach: Domenico Di Carlo.
So our first home win of the season takes us to seven points and puts us in 17th in the table, just one point behind Atalanta who we face in the mid-week match before the hugely important ‘Derby d’Italia’ match at the weekend. Have Inter managed to break the curse that has plagued us this season? For me that still remains to be seen, as one goal wins over Chievo and Lille are not enough to completely fill me with the confidence that we have seen the last of the bad results, for during both these games there were a few occasions where our defence was looking increasingly shaky. Inter looked almost certain to throw away leads, that being said no one can argue that we are looking more and more like the dangerous team we are and it’s only a matter of time before we are securing our leads with second goals and surging back to the top of the table where we belong.
The Inter man of the match for me in this game is a bit of a tricky one as quite a few of the Nerazzurri players had a good game, Sneijder as always was the strongest on the pitch and Zarate is starting to impress me more and more (even if he is still too selfish with the ball!) and even Chivu had a great game (which is a huge shock!). But my man of the match goes to Maicon because since his return he has been showing that he still has got the power, speed and skill to dominate the right flank for Inter and his runs ran Chievo ragged.
Looking forward to the rest of the week, the Atalanta game should be a similar affair as this Chievo match but the Juventus game at the weekend is a must win for Inter. It is not only to put pressure on Juve’s title chances but also for the pride of our club and the memory of Giacinto Facchetti.
