Inter at Leverkusen looking for points to enter the top eight in Europe: Simone’s challenge to another coach with whom he has many points in common
Help yourself, God helps you. They were lucky, of course, these two forty-year-olds who treat football with kid gloves, a work of art to be displayed and admired, cared for and dusted as often as it requires. Leverkusen is a city that lives on aspirins, but for one evening no headaches, maybe just a good glass of wine – yes – to accompany the challenge between Xabi Alonso and Simone Inzaghi, even before between Bayer and Inter. Lucky, it was said, because not everyone in life happens to meet a master, or rather two, like Carlo Ancelotti and Sven Goran Eriksson. That is the path traced, “just” follow it. And maybe add. And it’s easy, then, for masterpieces to emerge.
On the attack
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Masterpieces were the two championships won last season by Xabi and Simone. Historic victories: the first returned the real name to Bayer, no more Neverkusen, here’s Leverkusen again. The photos of the triumphs, if you wander through the corridors of the BayArena, are very fresh, very clean, very recent: Alonso, himself, took them. Inzaghi, on the other hand, filled the Inter world with number 20s and stars, who can forget it plus a tricolor brought home by arriving arms in the air in a derby. Because works of art are like this, they are forever. And they are beautiful. This is the match of the great beauty, director Sorrentino. But not a decadent beauty. Bayer arrives at this evening on the strength of five consecutive victories, Inter is in a group in which they have never conceded a goal (and if they don’t concede any tonight either they will become the first team in the history of the tournament unbeaten after the first six matches ) and in Italy he would already have his shot at first place today. Current beauty, anything but decadent. Beauty that rhymes with goals, because Bayer and Inter are physiologically inclined to attack, structurally designed to look forward rather than backwards. Eighty-nine is the number to keep in mind. The first number, not the only one: 89 are the goals that both coaches needed to win last championship, Xabi actually with four games less. Other figures, which tell a lot: Inter tonight faces the eighth team in Europe in terms of total shots (347, compared to the Nerazzurri’s 287), while Bayer finds itself ahead of the eighth club in Europe in terms of great chances created ( 74, against the 66 of the Germans, numbers relating to their respective championships). In short: between hitting and defending, both like the first verb better.
Compliments
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So that French beret Xabi seems so close to the Demon, Toulouse seems like Piacenza and who would have thought. Alonso says of his colleague: “He is one of the best coaches in the world, you learn a lot by analyzing Inter and watching them play.” Not bad. And then, about Inter: “He always has a clear idea of what needs to be done on the pitch to win: they know where to take the matches, they know how to take them.” It’s the best compliment possible: you choose where and how to display your work of art. Inzaghi responded: “Alonso is a great coach, he brought his principles: Bayer is a team that is always recognizable thanks to him, for how he knows how to attack and how he builds from the bottom.” The great thing is that the two statements could be reversed and no one would notice, they apply to both. Simone is full of pride when he says “I am where I started from and where I arrived, this path was born before Istanbul, it was born from the first year, from the matches with Real Madrid and Liverpool”. Alonso speaks clearly and doesn’t beat around the bush, “our goal is to get into the top eight”, Inzaghi picks up the calculator and says that “with 17 points we could be inside”. It means that we need four more, but with three more glasses of wine tonight, just one bottle wouldn’t be enough. Let’s sit at the table, then.
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