Against Sassuolo and Bologna I lost 5 points from advantage situations. In the last two Serie A home games the Nerazzurri have always gone ahead, but have not managed to maintain the positive result
– MILAN
From Sassuolo to Bologna, Inter sees itself again in the double comeback suffered at home in the last two home days of the championship. It matters little – except for today’s point for the purposes of the standings – that against Thiago Motta’s team there was a draw and not a defeat: what worries Simone Inzaghi is the same plot of the only two matches that the Nerazzurri can reproach themselves for in these first month and a half of Serie A. The advantage, the game in control and the enthusiasm of Giuseppe Meazza before; the individual error on the first goal, too much space left to the opponents on the second and then the nervousness at the end. From the black-green to the red-blue, the bitter taste in the mouth is the same for a team that has already lost five points in the championship from disadvantaged situations. At the final whistle of Inter-Bologna, only Cagliari have lost more in the 2023-2024 Serie A.
GOALS AND SMILES
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In the first and only midweek round of this championship, it was Denzel Dumfries’ “magata” that put Sassuolo under, surprising his opponents with a ball-and-chain movement that came in from the right wing to score with the left-footed player. Against Bologna, however, it was an incredible double blow in 117 seconds that stunned the rossoblù, first with the gored from a corner by Francesco Acerbi and immediately afterwards with yet another masterpiece by Lautaro Martinez, for once from outside the area, under the intersection. In both cases the clear feeling from the stadium was that of a downhill match, in the hands of Simone Inzaghi’s men already halfway through. San Siro singing, the players playing with a lighter mind, ready only to close the dossier at the first lethal restart. Furthermore, in both matches the goals occurred in key moments of the match: in injury time in the first half against Alessio Dionisi’s men, at the start of the match against Motta’s men who had not picked up the ball from the net for over 400 minutes. Perfect for “cutting off the legs” of opponents, in short.
THE INATTENTIONS
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Both times, however, the lower limbs were metaphorically mended by Inter with individual errors, reversing the moods of the teams on the pitch. Nedim Bajrami’s equalizer against Sassuolo was confirmed by an “injury” to Yann Sommer, to use Inzaghi’s words, uncertain about a seemingly harmless near-post finish. This time it was His Majesty Lautaro’s turn instead, probably naive in an area of the pitch not within his competence when he held Lewis Ferguson too long until he pushed the VAR to bring Marco Guida to the pitchside monitor. So Sassuolo and Bologna got back up, reinvigorated by the feeling of vulnerability of the most convincing team of this start to the championship.
FREEDOM OF ACTION
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Inter’s two home “omelettes” were then completed with two goals conceded in different ways but with clear common traits. Domenico Berardi had completed a true masterpiece from distance, while Joshua Zirkzee set him up with a couple of preparatory feints, but in both cases they were left far too much space to shoot. With the national team striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan he was unable to block the left foot following his typical movement to return from the wing, with the Dutch Alessandro Bastoni and Francesco Acerbi they even ran back allowing the attacker to take a breath, take the aim and electrocute Sommer. Two comebacks completed in a general difficulty in regaining the reins of a match that was first led and then escaped, with that light mind which then did not favor the lucid malice necessary to find the three points. Frenzy, nervousness and eagerness to score played in favor of the running clock. Now Inzaghi has a couple of weeks to work on a topic that he is already thinking about, because the objective from a second star perspective is that the points lost from a situation of advantage remain only five, without affecting the ranking that will immortalize the championship in end of the season.
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