INTER, OTHER THAN SCUDETTO COMEBACK!
UDINESE WINS AT SAN SIRO, PAZZINI MISSES EVEN A 90TH PENALTY.
RANIERI AMARO: “TALKING ABOUT GOALS IS NOW IMPOSSIBLE…”.
VOTE: 4,5
We said it during the presentation, if Inter wanted to beat Udinese they definitely had to change their tune compared to the last few games. Because it's one thing to face Cagliari and Siena, another to face Guidolin's team. The bianconeri, at 27 points (tied with Milan and, at the moment, plus 1 over Juve), are a solid group full of quality, devoid of any awe. But Inter didn't make it, and once again it was the physique who condemned them. Sorry to say, but this team is more able to keep certain rhythms for 90 minutes. Gasoline usually lasts for a while, an hour at most, and then runs out. For opponents with a certain quality, beating the Nerazzurri is all too easy, as Udinese demonstrated yesterday. The Friulian team, among other things in their "normal" version, waited for Inter for a while, making them vent (?), then picked up the pace in the second half, and the victory came almost naturally. And while the Bianconeri missed one, two, three goals, the Nerazzurri trudged on the pitch, with the pride of someone who has won everything and just doesn't want to give up on time. More than Mauricio Isla's right foot, it was Ranieri himself who condemned Inter, but for noble reasons: the Faraoni – Zarate change, a few minutes after removing Alvarez to insert Nagatomo, was a declaration of war on Udinese. However, she didn't get scared, on the contrary she won the game: “When Faraoni got hurt, I put in Zàrate, thinking I could win the match – said the coach after the match – but Udinese did good. Now, without feeling sorry for ourselves, we have to fight and at the end of the year we'll see what we can do. It would have been the game of turning point, because it would have made us take all the self-esteem we were building up”. Ranieri had talked about a Scudetto comeback, but now not even he, an incurable optimist, believes in it anymore: "I'm no longer going to say we're fighting for the Scudetto, but match after match, but until the math says we're out, I won't give up, it's my character and that of my players. We are far away but we continue to work, I hope that even with the injured players returning we will be able to find a certain compactness, a fluidity of play".
Now we need to start again, and objectively it won't be easy. Nothing turns right, not even fate. Yet the blindfolded goddess seemed to have winked at the nerazzurri: first Julio Cesar saved a penalty from Di Natale (by the way, Zanetti's first expulsion in 16 years with Inter), then Milito got one right in the XNUMXth minute. But Pazzini's mistake, slipping on the penalty spot (!) at the moment of shooting, made everyone understand that it really isn't the season.
After the match, a dark-faced Massimo Moratti locked the coach in the locker room for an emergency summit (also present by sporting director Ausilio and sporting director Branca) which made one think of sensational implications. For once, however, logic won, and the president reaffirmed his total confidence in Ranieri. From now on, we will think only and exclusively of the January transfer market, which will inevitably have to revolutionize Inter. Ranieri asks for it, but above all the fans demand it. The credit for the treble is over, as is the patience of the Nerazzurri people.
