Article 97 — Inter & United Get A Step Closer To The Final
Right, decision time. How do I divide myself into two for the Europa League quarter-finals involving Manchester United and Inter this morning? I decided to choose one over the other. My choice was to go with Inter’s match against Bayer Leverkusen as it was the tougher of the two. I had faith Manchester United should see off FC Copenhagen even if you cannot take anything for granted in life.
This is how the matches went:
Going into the game against Bayer Leverkusen, I had good memories of our encounter against them in the Champions League in 2002–03. But our recent record against German teams was not very good. I remember getting eliminated by VfL Wolfsburg in 2014–15 and Eintracht Frankfurt last season in the Europa League. We had also lost to Borussia Dortmund in this season’s Champions League group stage despite taking a 2–0 lead at half-time.
Inter had not got off to a great start in the previous match against Getafe but weathered the storm to get past the Spanish team. It would be risky if we got off to a slow start against Leverkusen with their speedy and creative attackers.
Inter had the better of their German opponents throughout the game. We were aggressive in closing down from the front and closing the space for Bayer Leverkusen to attack. We kept the pressure on Leverkusen and took the lead with our first shot on target through Nicolo Barella, from the outside of his foot for some finesse in the finishing. That goal opened the floodgates for many more opportunities for Inter.
We got our second six minutes later when Romelu Lukaku was hauled down in the box but still managed to stab home the second goal. Before that, Barella had missed a good opportunity to extend the lead and after Lukaku scored our second goal, he too missed an opportunity to score our third goal. We were running riot on the Leverkusen defence.
Out of nothing, from their first meaningful attack and first shot on target, Leverkusen pulled one back through their highly-rated youngster, Kai Havertz. It was a soft goal to concede as I felt we should have defended better. For the rest of the game, Leverkusen had more possession but only had one other shot on target that forced Samir Handanovic into a save. The best opportunities to score fell to us. We should have scored more than the two goals we scored and the final scoreline is not a fair reflection of the game. On top of the chances we missed, we had two penalties that were rescinded after VAR reviews.
I didn’t expect Inter to dominate as they did so it was a surprisingly very good performance. The team was unchanged from the previous two matches. My only contention was on why Danilo D’Ambrosio keeps getting selected ahead of Antonio Candreva. I really like D’Ambrosio and he is what you would call a solid and steady defender who does his job well but I feel he is better as a right-back in the back four or one of the three central defenders in a back three.
He did well in the defensive aspect of his game this morning as he and Diego Godin closed the space for Leverkusen’s speedy Moussa Diaby to attack. Godin is performing very well and justifies his start ahead of Milan Skriniar. In fact, the back three of Godin, Stefan de Vrij and Alessandro Bastoni select themselves at the moment based on their current form.
Barella was everywhere in midfield and could have scored once more. He could have done better at times in possession too. The same can be said for Marcelo Brozovic who pressed high alongside Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez. Brozovic had opportunities to score too but was looking to place his shot in the back of the net instead of just going for goal which is why he didn’t get close to registering a shot on target.
Roberto Gagliardini was the weak link in our midfield but didn’t too badly. He could have scored twice, once his shot was blocked by Lukaku and the other he was too slow to get his shot off. Lukaku was a handful for the Leverkusen central defenders all night long. He put in a hard shift as well and could have scored more than once. This is the first time in his career that he has scored more than 30 goals in a season and became the first player in the history of the UEFA Cup/ Europa League to score in 9 consecutive matches.
The Lautaro Martinez we are seeing now is like a pale imitation of the player we saw before lockdown. He continued that form in this game. Alexis Sanchez came on to replace him and had to limp through the final minutes of the game with a suspected hamstring injury after we had utilised our three opportunities to make a substitution.
Conte got his substitutions right too. He didn’t delay and hesitate in making substitutions. The first two that he introduced early in the game, Christian Eriksen and Victor Moses had good games. There was an appearance off the bench for Skriniar too. Inter have now got a rest period of a week before the semi-final against either Shakthar Donestk or FC Basel. It’s a rare period of extended rest at a time where teams are playing every three or four days.
Manchester United, on the other hand, had to go the long way around to see off Copenhagen. We nearly committed suicide when Fred lost the ball in a dangerous position in our half but we recovered well to deny Copenhagen an opportunity to even trouble Sergio Romero.
United hit the post twice through Mason Greenwood and Bruno Fernandes in the second half. Greenwood had a goal disallowed on the stroke of half-time after a VAR review found him to be in an offside position. The real star of the show was Copenhagen’s goalkeeper, Karl-Johan Johnsson who pulled off a number of saves to keep us out. He made 13 saves in the game, the most a goalkeeper has ever made in a single Europa League match. The introduction of Juan Mata at the start of extra-time brought its desired effect as he was an added source of creativity. It was his pass to Anthony Martial that led to the penalty from which Bruno Fernandes scored our solitary goal.
The penalty was our 21st of the season across all competitions, the most among all teams in Europe’s Top 5 leagues. It is something that will be scoffed at by our detractors and haters but I repeat again, most penalties we have got have been legitimate including the one we got this morning. In our victorious Europa League campaign in 2016–17, our quarter-final 2nd leg went all the way to extra-time too. Hopefully, that will be a good omen for this campaign. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has also now got United to three consecutive semi-finals in cup competitions this season but we would now need to take the next step forward because we want to do better than just getting to the semi-final.
Previews of the semi-finals to come after the remaining quarter-finals are concluded.
