Article 68 — Inter Annihilate Brescia
Brescia will always have a soft spot for me for being Roberto Baggio’s final club. In the reverse fixture, Inter won 2–1 at the Stadio Rigamonti but were under a lot of pressure from the home side. We were clinical with our finishing in that match, a deflected effort by Lautaro Martinez and a splendid strike by Romelu Lukaku to win it.
Inter were going into this match on the back of an ugly 2–1 win over Parma while Brescia had moved off the bottom of the Serie A table after a 2–2 draw against Genoa. On paper, this should have been a match for Inter to boost their confidence significantly. If we had drawn, lost or won narrowly in this game, the alarm bells around the club will grow louder as would the anxiety.
This is how the match unfolded:
Inter gifted Brescia an opportunity early in the game that was spurned by Alfredo Donnarumma. If Brescia had scored, it would have created anxiety and made it nervy for Inter. They didn’t but Inter did.
As you have seen, Inter steamrolled Brescia 6–0. This was Inter’s biggest win since smashing Atalanta 7–1 at San Siro in the 2016–17 season. It was a great win for the confidence of the team although I would say the performance was not perfect. There were elements of it that can be improved.
Alexis Sanchez had a superb game, he played a part in four of the six goals and got on the scoresheet by converting a penalty for the game’s second goal. He was hungry and played with full of energy, desire and quality. Inter scored 6 goals in the game and we had 6 different goal-scorers but surprisingly none of the scorers was the potent strike-force of Lautaro Martinez or Romelu Lukaku.
Martinez had another below-par performance but Inter had the opportunity to take him out early to give him a rest. Ideally, I would have liked to see Sebastiano Esposito given a run-out but sadly, because of his contractual situation, he stayed on the bench again. It is such a pity and very sad to see Esposito and Kwado Asamoah get on the bench every game and stay there because of their contractual situation with the club.
In the case of Esposito, he had shown a lot of promise when he was given the chance to play by Antonio Conte and for a young boy, the more minutes he gets at this level the better for his development. I hope common sense and practicality can prevail between the club and player. Hopefully, the situation can be resolved positively without the player leaving the club.
The one player I didn’t want to see get off the bench at all was Romelu Lukaku. The match was already won and sewn up. I wanted him to completely rest this match as he has been used a lot in consecutive matches. Unfortunately due to the freezing of Esposito and the need to rest Martinez, he had to be brought on.
I was pleased for Roberto Gagliardini that he scored but in the back of my mind, I can’t help thinking if only he scored against Sassuolo. Well, bygones are bygones now. Christian Eriksen needed to play after two invisible performances. He came on with the game already won and scored a scrappy goal but in terms of performances, it wasn’t any better than what we have seen recently.
Borja Valero was playing in Eriksen’s playmaker position, he tried his best but was also overshadowed by Sanchez who was everywhere on the pitch. The defence was determined and aggressive to keep a clean sheet and we managed it for the first time since December 2019. Largely, there was nothing to trouble the defence and Samir Handanovic in goal but when called into question, they all stood up.
I had written Victor Moses off after the previous match against Parma but he showed his Chelsea form and performance in the match early today morning. Ashley Young on the opposite flank scored a great goal and had a very good performance.
It was a welcoming sight to see as well of Marcelo Brozovic on the bench. He wasn’t called upon which was a good thing as it meant we didn’t need to rush him back into action risking further injury. He might be ready for the next match against Bologna.
This win should give the team a shot of badly needed confidence but there is a worrying trend of Inter going on a poor run of results after a big win. The danger is thus not over yet. I hope that is not the case and we can push on for the remainder of the season with style and confidence.
