Inter play with an aura – their win over Napoli shows only Juventus can stop them in Serie A
By
James Horncastle Dec 4, 2023
Simone Inzaghi was a baby when
Inter Milan last went to Naples and won 3-0. Apart from the odd strand of grey, Inzaghi’s hair is still raven black. But make no mistake, it was still a long time ago. April, 1977. Inter don’t often win in the shadow of Vesuvius. They went 13 years without celebrating one at the Maradona until a winter’s night in 2020 when
Romelu Lukaku scored twice.
Lautaro Martinez then ended
Napoli’s hopes of a comeback in a 3-1 victory.
Inter, then under the management of Inzaghi’s predecessor, Antonio Conte, were to be taken seriously again. Only Lautaro and
Stefan de Vrij were still in the starting XI on Sunday night. Everyone else, apart from the injured Alessandro Bastoni, has either retired or been sold. But Inter are even better today. This is the finest Italian team, pound for pound, since
Juventus reached two
Champions League finals between 2015 and 2017. “It was a show of force, of togetherness,” Inzaghi said afterwards.
His team hasn’t played at San Siro in what feels like forever. This was Inter’s fifth game on the road in six matches. Since the end of the international break, they have travelled to Juventus, Benfica and, at the weekend, Napoli, the champions of Italy. It has been tiring. In Lisbon, Inzaghi made eight changes with Sunday’s trip to the Bay area in mind. His team had already qualified for the Champions League knockout stages with two games to spare, something that hadn’t happened in almost two decades. But 3-0 down at half-time, Inter still needed to save face. That they came close to winning 4-3 was to some observers another example of the
pazza or crazy Inter of old. To others, it underlined that when this team really wants to turn it on, it can.
Scarily, the comeback was already almost complete before Inzaghi glanced over to his bench and brought on the big guns. Inter play with an aura that only the great Italian teams possess. In their case, it comes from that night in Istanbul in June when they played the best team in the world, lost undeservedly, and returned knowing they could and should have beaten
Man City. Inzaghi didn’t anticipate the team to build on it. “We’ve had three and a half very good months,” he said. “It’s unexpected because we changed 12 or 13 players.”
Sunday felt like a major statement. Juventus had gone top on Friday night with a gutsy stoppage-time win in Monza, the kind real contenders are made of.
Psychologically, it did not faze Inter. The prospect of Victor Osimhen starting his first game in nearly two months didn’t either. Even with an injury-hit defence. “We lost de Vrij after 18 minutes,” Inzaghi observed. “Bastoni and Benjamin Pavard were at home (recuperating). I had (a couple of summer signings) Yann Bisseck and
Carlos Augusto, who last played in a back three 18 months ago with Monza in Serie B.”
Inzaghi could have thrown on Bisseck and moved Matteo Darmian over to the other side, but it would have meant putting a player who was playing for Aarhus in Denmark last season up against Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the
Serie A MVP. Darmian stayed where he was and, once again, defended expertly.
Inter kept a clean sheet, their 11th of the season in all competitions. They had
Andre Onana’s replacement, the veteran
Yann Sommer, to thank for it. The
Switzerland international isn’t a Pirlo-in-gloves like his predecessor, but, according to StatsBomb data, he is second for “goals saved above average” in Serie A behind Monza’s ex-Inter academy graduate Michele Di Gregorio. Sommer produced a huge early save from Elif Elmas and denied Kvaratskhelia later in the game.
At the other end, Lukaku’s successor,
Marcus Thuram, continues to demonstrate his credentials as the signing of the season in Serie A. In Lisbon in midweek he came on and made an instant impact, winning his fifth penalty of the season, the source of Inter’s equaliser. On Sunday, he had a goal disallowed for a marginal offside before netting his fifth for the club, a tap-in that paled in comparison with the beauty he curled in during the 5-1 demolition of
AC Milan in the Derby della Madonnina. Five goals, six assists and five penalty wins in less than half a season would represent value even if he cost tens of millions. But Thuram arrived on a free transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach, one of the best Bosmans in chief executive
Beppe Marotta’s career.
As good as Inter’s top and tail is at the moment, it’s in the middle where the magic happens. Since the spring, this midfield has emerged as one of the most cerebral and fluid in Europe. A big part of that is Hakan Calhanoglu’s reinvention as a deep-lying playmaker. “I feel underrated,” he said in March. “I’m not far from names (like
Kevin De Bruyne,
Luka Modric,
Pedri and
Casemiro). I’ve got everything to get closer to them. Considering how much my game has come on, I see myself among the top five in Europe in my role.”
Shush in the comments. This is no laughing matter.
Marcelo Brozovic’s injuries last season and subsequent move to the Saudi Pro League have consolidated Calhanoglu’s role in front of the back three. No one in Serie A averages more passes per 90 minutes. His wicked through ball for Davide Frattesi in the 2-1 win against
Atalanta was one of the finest of the season. It led to a penalty, which of course Calhanoglu, impeccable from the spot, put away. His set-piece deliveries are the league’s best because, ballistically, few players can strike a ball as well as he can. Everyone remembers how Calha, now 30, burst onto the scene with that remarkable long-range free kick for Hamburg against
Dortmund and he got Inter on their way in Naples on Sunday with the zippiest of hits. Only
James Maddison and De Bruyne have scored more goals from outside the box in Europe’s top five leagues than the Turkey international in the past five years.
Nudging the ball to him for the opener was Nicolo Barella, who admitted: “Things haven’t been coming off for me lately. It’s been a bit of a hard time.” He hit the upright in Lisbon and hadn’t scored at all until Sunday. But here he was again, busy as ever and involved in all of Inter’s goals. His own was all about the playmaking from captain Lautaro, who pulled out wide, spotted his run and set him up. But Barella’s first touch to evade Leo Ostigard was exquisite and shifted the momentum definitively Inter’s way.
Only moments earlier the referee waved Osimhen’s claims for a penalty away. It was the second controversy of the evening after Lautaro appeared to rugby-tackle Stanislav Lobotka in the build-up to Inter’s first goal. Walter Mazzarri was so upset the Napoli coach didn’t appear in front of the media afterwards. His team played well, which only added more lustre to the scale and manner of Inter’s win as they moved back to the top in Serie A. “Tomorrow. they’ll write that Inter have no rivals,” Inzaghi said. “But when we were 3-0 down at half-time against Benfica, they were probably preparing other articles. It’s part of football. I’m used to it. We’re used to it.”
Regardless of the uncertainty surrounding their president, Steven Zhang, and
Suning’s ability to hold onto the club beyond May, Inter’s aim to win a 20th Scudetto and earn a prestigious second star remains on course. Only Juventus can stop them. Right now, Inter are one of the most complete teams in Europe.
Inter's 3-0 win over Napoli showed again that they are one of the most complete teams in Europe.
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