Article 86 — Inter Stays 2nd
Inter played against Napoli in our last league match at San Siro for this season. It will be the last time we will play at San Siro this season too with the Europa League Round of 16 match against Getafe being played in Germany.
This will be the fourth time this season we are playing against Napoli after playing against them once in the league at the Stadio San Paolo and twice in the two-legged Coppa Italia semi-final. This is how the match went early this morning:
Inter were knocked out by Napoli in the Coppa Italia semi-final. As the semi-final was not broadcasted “live” in Singapore or at least not “live” on the cable TV package that I have subscribed to, I would not be able to comment too much on how those matches went. In the first encounter of the season at Stadio San Paolo, we were clinical in our finishing and were assisted a bit by Napoli too on our way to a 3–1 win. Napoli gained revenge with a 2–1 aggregate win in the Coppa Italia on the way to winning the Coppa Italia.
Based on the highlights and reports of the Coppa Italia semi-final, I understand we dominated the match especially the second leg but failed to score more than once and overturn the first-leg deficit.
Inter and Napoli were both going into this morning’s match with the objective of finishing as high as possible on the league table. Inter has already secured Champions League football for next season while the Scudetto has already been decided. Napoli has also secured Europa League football for next season. Both teams would have an eye on preparing for the resumption of European football in less than a week after their last league match of the season.
Inter started the game with some sleek and fluid football, the kind we displayed in the first half of the season. We deservedly took the lead through defender Danilo D’Ambrosio’s neat and composed finish. After dominating the early stages of the game and scoring, I am not sure if it was a strategy to sit back or we got overpowered by Napoli’s midfield, Napoli got back into the game.
Napoli has built a reputation since the time of Rafa Benitez and Maurizio Sarri of being a team that was very neat and tidy in possession and playing triangles around their opponents. That seemed to overpower our midfield and their full-backs joining the attack created an overload. Our defence held firm as we sat back in numbers. Samir Handanovic was called into action to make two good saves, one from Piotr Zielinski and another from our former player, Matteo Politano. Lorenzo Insigne went close twice as well when his shots went narrowly wide. Our attacks dried up but we still did have some forays forward.
The pace of the game dropped significantly in the second half as fatigued affected both teams. Our defence held firm and was largely untroubled in the second half. Out of nothing, we scored our second goal when substitute Lautaro Martinez unleashed a shot from long range that beat Alex Meret in the Napoli goal. Meret had made a mistake to allow Inter to score our second goal in the reverse fixture and for this goal as well he looks culpable. Inter held out to win a hard-fought match 2–0 to go back into 2nd place.
In terms of performance, outside of the opening 10–15 minutes, Inter battled hard and produced a resolute defensive performance. We lost control of our midfield after that initial period of dominance which is why our attacks got sporadic. Our defence did very well to keep a third consecutive clean sheet in a row. After a period where we were conceding at least a goal, a game and looking vulnerable, we are now looking rock solid at the back again. It has come a bit too late in the league though because the title is lost.
Romelu Lukaku really surprised me with his performance. He is not known to perform well in big games but this morning, he gave his marker Kalidou Koulibaly a run for his money. He dominated his opponent and his performance deserved a goal. Unfortunately due to the sporadic nature of our attacks, he didn’t have an opportunity to add to his season’s goal tally. He did play Nicolo Barella through on the counter-attack with a peach of a ball but unfortunately, Barella’s second touch meant the ball ran away from him and Meret rushed out to smother the ball.
I had mentioned that on present form, Alexis Sanchez was our next most in-form striker together after Lukaku and he deserved his start but his performance today wasn’t up to scratch. Barella and Marcelo Brozovic are not quite in the form we are used to seeing of them. I believe they will get there with more matches played. I read a lot of praise on social media for Borja Valero’s performance. I felt he kept things ticking by in the first half but he too was overpowered by Napoli’s midfield.
Antonio Conte made a good point in the post-match press conference. He spoke about how it is important for Inter’s mentality to be able to face the pressure of maintaining its position in relation to Atalanta’s challenge for the 2nd spot this season. It will be scant consolation in a season of regret but an improvement on previous season. Not to mention the financial dividends Inter stand to gain from finishing second in the league.
Inter has got the best defensive record in the league and has scored more goals than the champions Juventus too but we have lost out on the most important statistic of all, the points collected. One last game to go for the league season against Atalanta. In theory, a dead rubber with Champions League qualification secured for both teams. Inter needs a point to secure the second spot while Atalanta needs three points to do so.
It looks like Conte and Inter are determined to secure the second spot while keeping the team rotated and fresh for the Europa League match against Getafe three days after. Atalanta has 10 days to rest ahead of their Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain so they should have their full focus on the last match of the season at the Gewiss Stadium before turning their attention to the Champions League quarter-final. The final match will be fascinating albeit between two teams that will surely be tired from their exertions this season.
