Porto 0-0 Inter: Nerazzurri in the quarter-finals of the Champions League

From our correspondent Filippo Conticello

March 14th
– PORT

With an immense heart, courage and very high head, Simone Inzaghi’s Inter hit the quarter-finals of the Champions League: the Nerazzurri fans, even those who shamefully remained outside the stadium despite having a regular ticket, will remember the crazy night in Porto for a long time. The night of Onana’s Olympic calm, a defense with a knife between his teeth, a crazy recovery with two posts and a save on the line. It is the night of a 0-0 draw as precious as the 20 million that will enter the coffers of the Nerazzurri club that can forget Serie A: Europe really seems to be the garden of this team.

THE START

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On the one hand, Inter without Skriniar, as a precaution on the bench, forced to adapt Darmian as a defender and to fish out the shaky Dumfries seen this year, has Dzeko as Lautaro’s partner. On the other hand, Conceiçao’s Porto mobile which, in addition to the disqualification of Otavio and the knockout of the dangerous full-back Joao Mario, also lost Pepe to an injury before the match: the Portuguese 4-4-2 thus fades into a more extreme 4-2- 3-1 with the trio Evanilson, Eustaquio and Galen behind the Taremi centre-boost. In a fiery atmosphere, Porto started strong forcing the miracle Onana with a shot from distance by Uribe: it is the signal of an evening in which they will have to suffer. It is no coincidence that the Portuguese often pass from the left, taking advantage of the weak side of Simone Inzaghi’s team. The Inter goalkeeper himself had to relax on Galen because Porto, despite not having a drumming rhythm, managed to present themselves dangerously by exploiting the Nerazzurri’s mistakes. Yet even Inter would also have a gigantic opportunity after about twenty minutes and have to eat their hands for a too slow transmission from the ball: Barella in numerical superiority serves Dzeko late and his left foot is choked.

PRECIPITATION

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As much Dumfries suffers from his side where dangers rain down, as Dimarco forces his rival Pepê, a winger adapted to full-back, to chase him: it is Inzaghi’s alternating current, one lane on and the other not. Then another egregious mistake by Barella forces Darmian to spend a tactical foul to avoid the Portuguese restart, complete with an inevitable yellow card. The tremors in front of Onana are felt, scattered here and there, but Inter too would have time and space to hurt Sergio’s defense in which one can clearly see the absence of a column like Pepe: too much, however, the precipitation of the Simone’s band at the right moment. In the end, it went into the interval with a 0-0 draw, which was reassuring up to a certain point.

RECOVERY

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Even in the second half, Porto always gave a creeping sense of danger, especially on the Nerazzurri’s right side, while Inter tried to govern the ball by almost always getting anxious. A well sharpened shot could awaken a sleepy Barella, but it’s all of Inter that would perhaps need an emotional jolt to overcome fear and go beyond the dam in front of Onana. When there are about twenty minutes left, Simone moves the first pawns almost out of necessity: an exhausted Dimarco gives way to D’Ambrosio, in addition to the usual Dzeko-Lukaku relay, followed by the entry of De Vrij for the bruised Bastoni. Pure Conceiçao made his moves to add suffering to his former club: Toni Martinez replaced the evanescent Evanilson and the more offensive Franco took over from Eustaquio. It’s a last glimpse of the match forbidden to the faint of heart, in which Skriniar grits his teeth and Brozovic (Darmian out) and in which Lukaku sweeps more balls in his own area and on the only occasion in the half field opponent stumbles a bit. Onana is attentive to a very dangerous right foot from Grujic and leads his defense in a test of maniacal application in front of a team jammed with forwards in the final. In added time, Dumfries’ save on the line is worth much more than a goal and the two final woodworks from Taremi (one from Onana’s miracle) seem like a sign of destiny: it’s Inter’s night.