Atletico deserved to go through, they just didn't let Inter play. And as much as I would love to blame Simeone & his dark arts, Inter just didn't turn up last night. It was like watching boys vs men. We were getting easily pushed aside from the ball, always on the defensive rather than playing our natural game.
Atletico looked fitter, hungrier and were first to the ball all over the pitch. They took more initiative than us & looked like a top team. The only surprise was that Atletico didn't score more goals. The result is a big disappointment for us, but the truth is that we were lucky to take it to penalties.
The Ref was not giving 50-50 fouls to either team, he was letting the game flow as usually happens in Europe. Inter needed to play strong & physical, coz Atletico did just that & outmuscled us all over the pitch. Which was no surprise, and the fact that Inter did not have an answer to this physicality is on Inzaghi & the club. Maybe we need a Plan B for such games, I don't know what it is but surely it means we cannot play BOTH Calhanoglu + Mkhi in the midfield in such physical games. Don't get me wrong, I thought Hakan was our best midfielder yesterday, but tactically our midfield got outmuscled. Perhaps having a physically strong midfielder for such games could be our plan B. Or maybe there is another solution.
But yesterday didn't work, and now other teams know that to stop Inter you just need to get more up close & physical on our players. Maybe there aren't many teams in Serie A with the quality to pull this off & perhaps the Refs in Serie A blow their whistles too often compared to Europe, so Inter might still dominate Serie A. But Bologna did this to us a couple of times & gave us a lot of trouble. Our weakness is exposed. We definitely need a plan B.
That said, winning the CL is always a long shot. The 2nd star was our main objective this season, and the team is in line to achieve that. This is a successful season & this Inter team should be celebrated despite this result. Love this Inter for all the joy they have given us. We will be back next year!