INTER, A VICTORY WORTH NOTHING! MARSEILLE PUNISHED AGAIN IN THE RECOVERY TIME, THE NERAZZURRI WELCOME TO THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. RANIERI AMARO: “THIS IS THE PHOTO OF OUR SEASON”.
Never was victory more mocking. Inter came out of the Champions League with their heads held high, but with the awareness of having truly lost everything. For the first time in 7 years, the Nerazzurri will end the season with "zeru tituli", a slogan once so dear to the Inter people, which forces Massimo Moratti to make a long series of reflections. Because if it is true that a move to the quarter-finals would not have distorted judgments about Inter, it is equally true that in this way the balance of the season ends below zero and now there is the risk that things could even get worse. In fact, such a mocking elimination could really deprive a team already short of petrol of stimuli.
THE MATCH
"You don't change a team that wins" Ranieri must have thought in the pre-match and so he lined up the same team from Verona. The big surprise was the second consecutive exclusion of Cambiasso, with Zanetti back in the midfield together with Stankovic and Poli. Charged by the Champions League music and the over 60 spectators at San Siro, Inter immediately started off strong, so much so that the best chances of the match were seen in the first 10 minutes. First Sneijder missed a goal 5 meters from the goal line (!), kicking Mandanda, then Milito did the same, but this time the goalkeeper's merits are evident. Two colossal chances, which would have immediately changed the inertia of the match and which, on balance, proved to be fatal. After the initial shock, Marseille has slowly gained meters, relying on their physicality in the middle of the field, as well as the leg of some of their players (above all the full-backs, real plungers). And so Inter went to half-time without having leveled things up. In the second half, however, the roles were reversed and for a quarter of an hour we only saw Marseille, but never really dangerous. When in the 57th minute Wesley Sneijder asked for a substitution due to injury, things really seemed to go badly, but instead Inter came out again. With Obi replacing the Dutchman, Ranieri returned to his beloved 4-4-2, enhanced by the characteristics of Pazzini, who took over from a disappointing Forlan. Thus the Nerazzurri came back and in the 75th minute they unlocked the match thanks to a paw from Milito, good at making amends for the mistake in the first half. The roar of San Siro tried to push the Nerazzurri to the qualifying goal, which however did not arrive. And just when everyone was preparing for extra time, the disaster happened: Mandanda's long clearance, Lucio's sensational hole and Brandao's ice chain. It doesn't matter if the attacker helped himself with a (slight) push or if Pazzini scored the 2-1 goal from a penalty kick a minute later, the game was already over in the 93rd minute. Clamorous mistakes and bad luck, the perfect snapshot of the Nerazzurri season. Which last night could have been saved and which sadly ended instead, just like the treble team.
THE REACTIONS
Who expected a Massimo Moratti furious with team and coach was disappointed. the Nerazzurri president, who left San Siro after midnight, was sad and dejected, but aware that his people had truly given everything: "On an evening like this, there's no point in discussing the coach, I haven't seen his faults, if anything, the luck of the his colleague Deschamps. Had we lost 0-4 it would have been different, but the way things went Ranieri deserves no criticism. The same goes for the players, they did their duty." Despite the fine words of the president (who in any case made no reference to the future), Claudio Ranieri he was far from relieved: “What happened is the photograph of the season. More than what we did we could not do. In one hundred and eighty minutes we conceded three shots on goal, whoever scores wins, so congratulations to them. Now we have to find reasons to end the championship in the best possible way, because this team has given everything and must continue like this". But realistically what can Inter's goal be now? “Third place is theoretically still possible, but the wind has to change…”. Now that things went badly in the Champions League as well, there are no more doubts: Claudio Ranieri will leave Inter at the end of the season, if not even sooner. This is how things are for everyone, but not for the Nerazzurri coach, who continues to defend his position: "If I have to say something to Moratti, I won't come and tell you, we always talk, I don't have to convince him to keep me, he does the his work, I mine, very quietly. If he sends me away I'll thank him heartily for the opportunity, that's all. But you don't have to reschedule everything because we're out, there's a program and we carry it forward anyway. What we will do? Wait and see..."
