Simone is an inside or outside specialist and in Europe he can’t go wrong given the disappointing performance he has had so far in the league. Benfica is no longer the autumn one…
The preventive discouragement is unjustified, Benfica-Inter is more playable than it seems, for a series of reasons, not least the backlash that is expected from Simone Inzaghi’s team. Inter is coming from a horrible month. Since his return with Porto in the round of 16 of the Champions League, just under a month ago, with the attached qualification, he hasn’t hit one again. Just the draw caught on its last legs against Juve, in the Italian Cup, can be entered under the positive results item. The rest tells us about a deep crisis: one point in three league games, a draw in Salerno and home defeats against Juve and Fiorentina. A disastrous streak, but tonight we can do the feat because…
Benfica is no longer the autumn one
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We have Benfica in front of us, who beat Juventus twice in the group stage in the autumn, 2-1 in Turin and 4-3 in Lisbon. An exuberant team, sometimes irrepressible. A lovely, fast-paced, down-ball game. In the round of 16, Benfica eliminated Bruges 7-1 on aggregate (5-1 and 2-0), an impressive display of strength, except that the Belgian team was perhaps the weakest of the sixteen. We don’t want to belittle the Portuguese, but the transfer of Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea on the winter transfer market has taken enough away from midfield and Otamendi’s suspension for tonight’s match deprives the reds of a defensive pillar. There won’t even be Bah, the right-back, out with a knee injury, and the other low-back, the left-handed Grimaldo, has lived a troubled eve. It will be a formidable Benfica, moved by the genius of Rafa Silva and Gonçalo Ramos’ sense of goal, but Friday’s defeat in Lisbon against Porto has sown insecurity. Just Porto, eliminated by Inter in the Champions League, which is why we invoke the transitive property.
Inzaghi is an inside or outside specialist
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Simone Inzaghi is a specialist in the “mata mata”, knockout matches. He has played 32, including finals, between national and international cups and his balance sheet is flattering: he made it through 18 times and won six finals. Twenty-four out of 32, 75 percent, three times out of four. The statistics contain everything, the Italian Cup and the Italian Super Cup, and if we restrict the field to the Champions League, the balance is negative. On his debut in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, he played three times in the round of 16: he was eliminated by Bayern when he was at Lazio and by Liverpool in his first season at Inter; it passed a month ago against Porto. However, his return to Anfield last year was indicative of his ability to prepare for matches of this kind. Ballasted by the 0-2 draw at the San Siro, they won 1-0 at home for Liverpool and came close to scoring the second goal. Inzaghi has no more bonuses to spend. A embark against Benfica would open up apocalyptic scenarios, but we are sure that he has prepared the match in detail and that he has in mind to “use” the Champions League to send back to the senders the criticisms of which he has been the target. Also because a semifinal against the other Italians, Milan or Naples, wouldn’t be taken for granted, Inter beat both of them. The encirclement syndrome may be the propellant. The “alone against all” is a classic, it has fueled companies considered impossible. Inzaghi in Lisbon will use it as leverage.
Dzeko and Lautaro must unlock
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Lautaro’s last goal dates back to March 5 against Lecce in the league, to find one from Dzeko you have to go back to January 18, in the Italian Super Cup against Milan, in the league from January 4 against Napoli at the San Siro, when the Scudetto comeback it didn’t seem like a utopia. Important, indeed gigantic, delays. It is not normal for two forwards of this level to have unlearned the trade. These are periods that happen and end. Neither Lautaro nor Dzeko are going through a moment of great condition, but sometimes nothing is enough to unlock. The abstinence of the two is prolonged and thunderous, at da Luz we expect one of the two to break the negative spiral.
The players for themselves, the club… ditto
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How much is a Champions League semi-final worth? About 12-13 million in UEFA prizes plus the mega collection of the home game, sold out with around ten million in revenue from ticket sales. It would be twenty million saving for the accounts and we are sure that the managers have sent messages to the players these days. Who for their part will use the two matches against Benfica as a showcase. Several Inter players are out of contract or have one limited in time, others are not sure what will happen to them. Everyone will have a great desire to do well to arouse interest and proposals. They are convergent economic objectives, it being understood that for the club, unless they win the Champions League, qualification for the next edition remains a priority, the real turning point for the future.
April 11, 2023 (change April 11, 2023 | 07:44)
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