Super Cup, Inter horror penalties: Chivu’s choices

Your specialist, the main hitter, is on the bench, watching his teammates take penalties one worse than the other. And your young cantera lion who warms up for a long time and then doesn’t come in. Yesterday both Hakan Calhanoglu and Pio Esposito were even more desperate than their teammates over the outcome of the penalties: Chivu explained that he had deliberately chosen not to let them in at the last minute so as not to expose them to the risk of cold kicking. Whoever took responsibility, however, made quite a mess: only those who have the courage to take them miss penalties, says an ancient adage of this game, but we have seen better conclusions than Inter’s yesterday. In the end, everything collapsed at the feet of the Italian axis: first Bastoni’s predictable shot, then Barella’s shot badly high. They were joined by one of the most positive young people of the season: a harmless phone call from Bonny to Ravaglia with a Saudi prefix. Zielinski would certainly have kicked if the flexor cramps hadn’t arrived and pulled him away from the pitch at the best moment. Lautaro, the man who fired shots in Madrid the last time, at least put it away: no Inter fan will ever be able to enjoy it.

DRAMATURGY

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The past is, by now, sadly known to Inter dramaturgy because, almost on the same type of action, the Nerazzurri have already sacrificed the 2024-25 scudetto, the one put in brackets precisely by the same limbs that move disorderly. Last season, on the first day, in the recovery at Genoa, where Inzaghi’s Nerazzurri left two bloody points: then it almost seemed like a stumble born of chance, a justifiable naivety, a conditioned reflex. Time has shown the opposite because another blow has arrived, and what a blow, in the penultimate round at San Siro against Lazio, on a shot in the 89th minute by Castellanos in an action that is now history in our Serie A. Fate is fierce here, even then Chiffi was refereeing, as in this other unfortunate foul: tying the threads together, for poor Yann there is a treble on his CV. Despite the embarrassing way in which the Nerazzurri’s penalties were taken and the second half dominated with the usual waste of opportunities, there is now a spotlight on Bisseck. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

AND NOW?

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He had said he wanted the World Cup with his Germany and for this reason he didn’t seem interested in the sirens of the transfer market which, at regular intervals, also reach his ears: for Bisseck, at the moment, only Inter seems to exist, even at the cost of splitting itself. During the season he also played central, the order man of the defense, but then returned to the centre-right position in which he should feel at ease. Yesterday, for once, he didn’t have Akanji next to him, but a surprisingly positive De Vrij and, unlike his teammate, endowed with Olympic calm: the Dutchman was also cool in the penalty action, right before Immobile’s final goal. Bisseck now has the task of getting up once again, and it won’t be easy given the continuous roller coaster journey this season: he started it with an error in Udinese’s goal, in the first of seven defeats of the season. On that occasion he had retreated for no reason, doing the exact opposite of what was written in the perfect defender’s manual, and had ended up bringing his enemy, the Friulian Atta, into the house. From that moment on, there were six consecutive benches in Serie A and an increasingly peripheral role, before slowly re-emerging. As it happens, right before flying to the Saudi capital, it was he who scored a decisive goal at Genoa. In short, the good is all in front and almost never behind, not the best for someone who plays that role.