Simone won the three points in 14 of the 25 matches in the most prestigious European cup, or in 56% of cases. What a difference with the numbers of their predecessors Conte and Spalletti… The Magician has a success rate of 62.5% and above all he has 2 European Cups under his belt; Mancini third with 52.7%.
– MILAN
Simone Inzaghi confirms himself as Champions League coach. To the qualification for the round of 16 achieved with Lazio in 2020-21, he added three more in a row on the Inter bench and, since moving to Pinetina, in the most prestigious European cup, he has won 14 matches out of 25 or the 56th % of meetings. Important numbers that project him into the club’s history: only Herrera, who lifted the Champions Cup in 1963-64 and 1964-65, did better (20 successes out of 32 games or 62.5%).
HIM AND HIS PREDECESSORS
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With fourth place in Serie A in 2017-18, Spalletti brought Inter back to the Champions League, a competition in which they had not participated since 2011-12, but then, in the 2018-19 edition they achieved 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats : no round of 16 and “relegation” to the Europa League. Conte, who gave the club a scudetto awaited for 11 years, did badly in the most prestigious continental competition: with the Nerazzurri he was unable to pass the group stage either in 2019-20 (third place) or in 2020-21 (even fourth ) and his numbers in the Champions League (5 knockouts, 4 draws and 3 wins) are not even comparable to the incredible record he had in the championship (a second and a first place). Last night’s win was Inter’s 101st win in the history of the Champions Cup-Champions League: 20, as mentioned, were achieved by Herrera; Mancini has 19 in 37 matches (success rate of 52.7%), Mourinho has 10 in 21 matches, but in 2009-10 he lifted the Cup. With the success in Salzburg, as well as access to the round of 16, Inzaghi has secured qualification for the Club World Cup in the summer of 2025, the first with 32 teams and with a fabulous prize pool. The official admission criteria will be established by the FIFA Council at the end of next month, but the indications received so far give rise to hope for the arrival of further guaranteed millions.
MASTER IN CHANGE
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Simone gave Inter back the European dimension that the club had lost after Mou’s treble. Granted, Leonardo had reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League by eliminating Bayern Munich (2010-11) and the following season Ranieri had passed the group stage, finishing out against Marseille in the round of 16, but the coach from Piacenza brought a continuity of results which had been missing from the most prestigious cup for too long. He succeeded thanks to a modern style of football, which will not please all aesthetes, but which is tremendously effective because it is modeled on the characteristics of the opponent: Inter do not necessarily want to have possession of the ball nor do they expect to always press high or to dominate anyone. Inzaghi and his staff study who they are facing, sometimes they choose to let others play and take advantage of the spaces granted, other times they order them to keep the ball in their hands. More generally, the team suffers when they have to (it doesn’t happen often) and hits whenever they can. An Inter is born that knows how to read matches, but also has another decisive characteristic: it approaches matches well and takes the lead (in 2023-24 this happened on 14 out of 15 occasions). Either he does it in the first minutes or in the second half, after the substitutions decided by Inzaghi. Here, if in the past the changes had been the subject of criticism (“always role after role” “never a different formation than the 3-5-2”: the most popular), now his moves are often crucial for victories. Lautaro’s poker in Salerno, initially spared, is the most striking case, but Toro was decisive even after his entry into Salzburg. Aside from the Argentinian’s goal, the other substitutes have also often proved decisive, such as Barella, Asllani and De Vrij in Austria. Here, take the Albanian who last season seemed lost: in this 2023-24 when he was used he only made a mistake in the first Champions League match on the Real Sociedad pitch and now he is a starter… added. In this 2023-24 season, Inzaghi is really involving (almost) the entire squad in rotations and rarely gets the timing of his moves wrong: when he throws fresh forces into the fray, his opponents run into difficulty. After the break he succeeded at Torino, Roma and Salzburg. Yesterday he also gave a starting shirt to Bisseck and on the sidelines there are only Sensi, the second goalkeeper Audero and Klaassen. With the arrival of the Italian Cup they will probably have a chance too. Especially if this Inter, first in Serie A and in the Champions League, continues to win.
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