Champions League, Sparta Prague-Inter 0-1: Lautaro’s goal decides

The cold of Prague is the ideal setting that suggests Inter’s next move: after the 1-0 against Sparta this evening, signed by Lautaro Martinez, Inzaghi and his team can chill a nice bottle of bubbles. Of course, to uncork it and toast the Champions League round of 16 without going through the playoffs, a final step will be needed against Monaco, on 29 January at San Siro, but in short, victory had to be and victory was: Inter, with 16 points, continues to be up there in the G8 of the best and now she is master of her destiny, she only needs one point to qualify. It is the fourth 1-0 success in this Champions League and Inzaghi is fine with this: his Inter of Europe will not enchant but is tremendously concrete and solid. We are at 6 games out of 7 without conceding a goal.

the script

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The high turnover of the previous Champions League matches is a memory, because – net of injuries – Inzaghi sends the best possible Inter onto the pitch: at the epetArena he presents himself with ThuLa from the start for the first time in this edition of the tournament, but also with Dumfries and Dimarco pushing on the wings and the very starting pair Barella-Mkhitaryan in the middle, with Asllani in the role of deputy to Calha. Friis, Sparta’s coach who admitted to taking inspiration from his Inter colleague, responds with a mirror image: Olatunji and Birmancevic have the task of trying to attack Sommer’s side. But a few minutes are enough to understand what the evening’s script will be: Inter control, manage and look for spaces between the lines of the Czechs, who think about creating density in their own half of the pitch but do little to annoy the Inzaghi gang. And so the Nerazzurri’s possession of the ball in the first half was around 70 percent, while during the first half hour Lautaro and his teammates didn’t have to spend even a single foul to stop their opponents: the first yellow card was indeed for Inter, but it materialized for a excessive severity by referee Hernandez, who judges a fall by Dumfries in the Sparta area to be a simulation after a tackle in the 6th minute.

here’s lautaro

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The Nerazzurri star with the armband takes care of jumping the cap, and he does it with a champion’s play. Lautaro, immediately among the most mobile on Inzaghi’s board, strikes at the edge of the Czech area, widening to the left, then attacks the far post and waits for Bastoni’s cross: when the ball falls on his side, Toro invents a turn -dunk that ends up behind Vindahl, under the crossbar. It’s the 12th minute and Inter settles into the game they wanted: Asllani (left-footed shot outside the target) and Barella also go to shoot, who wastes a great opportunity after receiving from the usual Bastoni (the Sardinian’s dish aims for the corner but ends up high). And Sparta? To tell the truth, a scoring opportunity also happens to the Czechs, but Birmancevic’s shot from the center of the area in the 33rd minute is blocked by Sommer in two halves.

Sparta alive

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The Serbian striker is by far the best of his team, and it is no coincidence that the shot that forces Sommer to deflect for a corner and scares Inter at the start of the second half still comes from his foot: Sparta follows him, because he comes back on the pitch with more courage and desire to bite. Inter try to take advantage of this by taking advantage of the quick counterattacks, like when Barella sets the table for Lautaro in the 58th minute: the Argentine’s right-footed shot, however, is central and goes out into the arms of the goalkeeper. However, shortly afterwards, it was the VAR that dampened the joy of the Inter fans: Dumfries made it 2-0 but the long check of the video by Hernandez’s collaborators established that Dimarco, the man who assisted in the goal, started offside. Inzaghi changes, inserting Frattesi and Darmian for Barella and Dumfries, and the Italian midfielder breaks through into the Czech area, serving a golden ball to Lautaro, blocked by the defense. Inter picks up the pace and comes close to scoring twice more in just a few minutes: first it is Thuram who narrowly misses the ball from Dimarco’s cross, then it is Dimarco himself who invents a right-footed counter-ball that flies over the crossbar. The substitutions on both sides do not change the pace of the match, with Inter pushing hard to try to close it: Lautaro (central) and the excellent Frattesi (right-footed shot deflected by Vindahl) try again. In the 82nd minute Inzaghi calls the captain back to the bench and plays the Taremi card but the result does not change. What has changed are the distances from the direct round of 16, now much closer.