Inter - Barcelona (16 Sep 09)

[K.I.]

That is true Ehsan, defensively we played an amazing match, Jose wanted to get a goal on the counter, but he sould have put stankovic and balotelli from the beginning of the second half.

 

[La Brujita]

I'm happy with the result. Half of our fielded players were new, and we still performed well and managed to not concede. Just remember we only played 3 games so far with our half-new team, and we're missing out best midfielder, El Cuchu.

 

[blackmore]

after watching this game i'm a lot less confident we'll win the CL. most of the match we got outplayed in midfield, and we were the team playing at home, lucio was probably our best player. muntari was an absolute disaster, i'm going to cry now

did u actually think we were going to win this yr....u gtta be joking right dude..???

 

[Alessandro]

Obviously Barca were the better team but I actually give credit to our defense... What clear chance did Barca have in the second half? Barca can pass all they want but they failed to break through our wall. We earned the point.

 

[rfU]

Look, we have the same dangerous players they have

They have creativity like Xavi and Messi, we don't. Players like that help them keep possession and are VERY dangerous when given space. I'm not sure what you guys were expecting. THis is Barca. Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U had to sit back against them, and they lost. ANd no one remembers 1/4 final vs Valencia where they had 70% possession That was eaily the worst performance I've ever seen.

If you want us to play possession football, then we should have bought Pizarro or Xavi Alonso, Sneijder isn't that sort of player. I'm not overjoyed by tonights performance but I'm not surprised, Barca are just that good. Plus we need time to gel and then get our link up play working. If we can just sort out our counter attacking moves, we can def beat them.

 

[Ilkinio]

I thought that we were much better than Chelsea last year and this says something.

 

[K.I.]

And what about Balotelli, Eto'o, Sneijder and Milito? They are not dangerouse when given the space? I am watchil Al Jazeera right now and they are saying the same thing i am saying.

 

[Adam]

A little dissapointed we didn't create more and generally just played better quality football, but the result is perfect. Absolutely perfect, especially considering the matchview.

There's many reasons to be positive. Last years Inter wouldn't of been able to pass the ball aswell as we did in certain periods of the match, and we would never have so many different threats on the pitch at the same time. This is positive and had this been anyone but Barca the game would of looked a lot more twosided.

At this point though we probably would of created more just hoofing longballs to Ibra if he had still been around, at the same time Barca would of probably created more if they would of had an Eto'o running behind our defence.

Anyways, doesn't matter. I'm happy with the result. I think, despite being outplayed, it will give our players confidence. Barca couldn't do to us, what they did last year in the final to Manchester.

 

[Scorpion]

There is only 1 way to challenge Barcelona, and that is if you defend until a faulty error comes and you counter. Chelsea did this in both legs of last year's Champions League and they almost beat Barcelona, but Iniesta struck home. Now, Im not saying that Inter has to do that, but like others said, if you try something that involves alot of attacking, the margin of goals will be 2+. I was expecting a 0-0 Draw, but yeah, the boys will gain alot of experience from this game. Adding to that, most of our squad is new, so this was officially our 1st Big UCL of the season. Last season, other big teams were also dominated in possesion. Julio Cesar was great, Etoo tried but never got a shot on goal, that I didnt see, and Milito was allright. Our Defense was great, the only problem is that we need to stop Barcelona's through balls and crosses, because they were the most dangerous.

This is all I had to say, Have a great Night everybody!

 

[visionary]

I still think that we lack a creative passer. Sneijder didnt pick out our men well today. Well i hope that'll improve from time to time. Unless we find some Xabi Alonso-like persona in our team, we would still struggle against big teams.

On the defensive side, all of it was perfect except for a couple of lasp from crosses.

 

[milton]

did u actually think we were going to win this yr....u gtta be joking right dude..???

yes, i thought we had a chance to win the competition, i knew barca were better than us, but i wasn't expecting to get totally outplayed at home

 

[K.I.]

Sneijder did fine with what he had really, Did you see Muntari?

 

[Luka]

The bad news, is that this game was suppose to advertise our team, and instead it cemented the domination of Barca in the ball possesion play.

...

The comment in polish TV is still pissing me off though. One guy said, that Capello said Inter MIGHT (not have to like it happened) win CL, and then bashed Jose for saying that Capello doesn't know SERIE A(not football in general, like it happened) football.

Seriously, this anti-Inter comment pissed me off the whole time. I understand everybody is drolling at Barca play, but Barca still deffends with the whole team. They do the same as all other teams do, Inter, Man Utd, Chelsea. Whenever we have the ball on their half, what's different? Nothing.

The difference is, Barca has 60% of ball possesion, so they look like "offensive" team, and the other team has 40% ball possesion, and look like deffensive team, because of this very own fact.

If suddenly, one team popped up, who would be even better technicaly than Barca, the roles would change.

Also, this whole talk, like Barca plays beautifly, and that they play fair and all this shit. Another crap. What Barca does first when the other team start their counter attack? The first thing, is to stop the player with the ball, with whatever the means.

Barca is doing all the same things deffensively, all other teams are doing. The difference is that they deffend 1/3 of the game, and attack 2/3 of the game. That's the difference.

 

[Luca-22]

I think the first half was ok, it was pretty even. The second I didn't like at all, we couldn't keep the ball for like 5 seconds and we already lost it. That's really something that has to change. Also Muntari really needs to learn how to pass properly. But the positive thing about the second half pressure was that we could see that our defence is amazingly good. Both Lucio and Samuel did very well.
We have to keep in mind we have a new team, so everything still needs to gel together. In a few months time I'm sure we'll look better. especially with Cuchu back. And above all: Barca is the best team in the world. So it could have been much, much worse.

 

[Stefan]

Barca played better but I am pleased with the result and our defensive display. Trying to attack barca would have been suicide. Chelsea should have beat them with this exact style if the ref wasn't blind so this is the way to go.

Our offensive needs work, eto'o,millito and sneijder still lack cohesion but that will come with time.

 

[shahz_nerazzurri]

Well they were building it up nicely. They could have had a few dumb shots on target, but they were the only team playing in the second half, and we had 10 players behind the ball. Their off target shots were pretty close.
This was way different than what Chelsea did to them last season. As they created chances themselves, and Barca's attack look way impotent back then, compared to today. But then again, that was Hiddink.

Still, we can be happy with a point, cause its the group stage, but we will never do anything in CL with performances like this. In a two legged tie, we will never be able to beat a bigger European club. In a two legged tie, to win, you have to attack at some point, something we havent done in the last two years. I can see teams like Arsenal and Liverpool just ripping us apart, if we decide to attack them. Its very possible that we will crash out of the round of 16, with out scoring a goal again, cause at no point in this game, did we actually look like we were gonna score a goal, just like all the previous CL games against bigger oppositions.

Lastly, the possesion ended at 67% for Barca. Jesus!!. Thats a freakishly high possesion count for a CL game, for an away team!!. Considering it was 46-54 in the first half, Barca must have had like 80% of the possesion in the second half.
4/5th time in the second half, the ball was with a Barca player. I am pretty sure a segunda B team can manager better than that.

 

[rfU]

And what about Balotelli, Eto'o, Sneijder and Milito? They are not dangerouse when given the space? I am watchil Al Jazeera right now and they are saying the same thing i am saying.

But they lack in terms of keeping possession, therein lies the problem. When do you ever see Xavi misplace a pass?? Hardly ever, and he doesn't just spray them across the pitch but all over. We don't have a player like that, nowhere near.

 

[Trequartista]

And to everybody who's complaining and saying we are behind Barca and we should beat them, well you are smoking something good. We wanted to win offcourse but its not easy to beat Barca. We played poorly but atleast didnt lose.

You got the point i think.. we should be understand, yes.. we poorly in midfield, yes in 2nd half we slow.. but we didn't lose.. we can handle attacking form Barca.. Yes, motta is to slow.. and with so many problem in Inter (my lovely team), with my respect.. I would say thanks to Barca, we learn so much from them..

 

[rfU]

There is only 1 way to challenge Barcelona, and that is if you defend until a faulty error comes and you counter. Chelsea did this in both legs of last year's Champions League and they almost beat Barcelona, but Iniesta struck home.

Most people seem to have forgotten that for some reason. ANd Barca are the most settled team if you think about it. Ibra is the only new addition to the starting 11 so there's almost a telepathic understanding between the players. BUt take Xavi out the equation and see what happens

 

[K.I.]

But they lack in terms of keeping possession, therein lies the problem. When do you ever see Xavi misplace a pass?? Hardly ever, and he doesn't just spray them across the pitch but all over. We don't have a player like that, nowhere near.

And what are Javier and Muntari doing then? You are talking about Xavi who yes who is great but if pressured cant do all the things he is doing. Anyways what luke is saying is true, any counter attack they always result in that player being fouled.