At the beginning of August the Nerazzurri won 3-4 at the Red Bull Arena, but were saved by two penalties missed by the Austrians: now Inzaghi’s team is a real battleship, including the goalkeeper who was a negative protagonist in that friendly match
In summer friendlies the result matters very little and, rightly, coaches love to repeat it. Precisely for this reason, last August 9th the 3-4 draw between Salzburg and Inter left a less than sweet aftertaste for the Nerazzurri. The victory arrived, and getting used to dealing with even unlucky matches is a precious quality, but Simone Inzaghi returned to Italy full of doubts about the collective resilience of the team in the defensive phase. Today, just under three months later, when the team returns to the Red Bull Arena for the fourth day of the Champions League, the rearguard of the European vice-champions is the flagship of the group and Yann Sommer has shown that that debut uncertain it was only an episode. An insipid drop in a very sweet lake
THE EPISODES
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In addition to the three goals conceded, in fact, Inter on that occasion “gave” two penalties to the home team – which later failed – and even conceded another goal which was later disallowed for offside. In short, they were all parameters well beyond acceptable according to the Inter coach, who however did not dramatize the unfortunate test just as he was not elated by the favorable result. In short, they were both signals to be processed with clarity: the incredible vulnerability and the demonstration of character in the comeback. The starting line-up was all in all similar to what you might see in the Champions League: Benjamin Pavard wasn’t there yet as he unfortunately isn’t available at the moment and the rest of the players played with the starters. Only in attack with Marcus Thuram did Joaquin Correa begin, compared to the cautious rest granted to Lautaro Martinez. In sequence, the episodes circled in red were: wrong pass by Henrikh Mkhitaryan with a very clear penalty caused by Sommer; wrong back pass by Nicolò Barella with subsequent outgoing “duck” by the Swiss; two more goals conceded with individual and departmental errors; the obvious foul of the second penalty by Yann Aurel Bisseck. Overall, there were only three deficiencies in the report card, obviously mitigated by the favorable final result.
The transformation
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Even without resorting to empirical data and comparisons which would be superfluous, it is clear that the return to Salzburg 90 days after the friendly match is simply a Sharpen your sight from Puzzle Week with reverse operation: the two snapshots to be compared are so different that the challenge could be to find their very hidden points in common. Think of Sommer, worrying in his first half hour on the pitch as an Inter player and now an absolute certainty (complete with record) capable of wiping away the nostalgia for André Onana. Or the defensive phase, which was malfunctioning to say the least in Austria and instead is a strong point of Inzaghi’s team, which calls on its goalkeeper to make a couple of interventions per game at most, when it goes badly. What hasn’t changed, but has improved, is the away game: the Nerazzurri won in Salzburg as they have always won away in the league. The only draw of the season away from Giuseppe Meazza came in the Champions League at Real Sociedad. Well, in this case we can take that friendly match at the beginning of August as an example. The result didn’t matter, now it really matters.
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