I'm more or less satisfied with the match. I think people saying it was abysmal and all that are overreacting.
No, it wasn't a pretty match. And yes, our goals came from the world's biggest deflection and an individual moment of brilliance. But Brescia weren't exactly ultra-threatening either. We completely dominated the first half with minimal effort and did enough to restrict Brescia to just crossing for the most part. Their goal was just as lucky as our first.
I think we managed the game pretty well. Moreover, it's about managing the season as a whole and I think there's some illusion or misconception about that process. Perhaps we've just forgotten because we've spent so long in the wilderness. Every team with CL aspirations will have shit matches here and there against stubborn little runt teams like Cagliari and Brescia (especially away where the atmosphere is hostile and the fans whistle absolutely everything).
What separates the genuine top 4 to the rest is whether you win or not in these 'less attractive' performances. Despite the slip up against Parma, we're definitely improving in this regard. Do you guys think juve looked any better than we did today when they won here a month ago? No. If anything, they looked far worse than we did. On the whole, there's no way in hell that anyone can say that juve have been playing objectively better football than us this season. The time they did was when they beat us. That's the difference. They've been garbage in their last 3 games against Lecce, Lokomotiv and Bologna, but it really doesn't matter, and nor should it when we win a match in this fashion today.
No one is pretending we won a beautiful match. It is what it is. Handanovic made some good saves, as one of the best keepers on the planet should do, and is paid to do. Lukaku scored a blinder. The defense did enough to not concede much. We were better. We absolutely deserved the win. On to the next.