Inter are arguably the most hated team in Italy along with Juventus and one suspects that all non-Inter Italian football fans were cheering Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final clash on Wednesday night. The first leg had ended in a 3-1 win - and a deserved win, it must be added - for the Nerazzurri at the San Siro and the Catalans had a Herculean task in the second leg at Camp Nou.
The Blaugrana could only manage a controversial 1-0 victory in Barcelona, meaning that their dreams of becoming the first team in the Champions League era to win the competition twice in a row remains just that - a dream.
As for Inter, they have reached the final of the European Cup for the first time since 1972 and will attempt to win the competition for the third time in history. Coach Jose Mourinho will also attempt to become only the third coach in history to win the Champions League with two different clubs.
Inter take on German giants Bayern Munich in the final at the Santiago Bernabeu on May 22. Mourinho was actually an assistant to current Bayern coach Louis van Gaal at Barcelona in the late 1990s and it promises to be an enticing clash of 'the master against the pupil'.
But for now, let's concentrate on how Inter reached the final of Europe's most prestigious club competition.
Group Stage
Italian champions Inter were clubbed with European and Spanish champions Barcelona, Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv and Russian champions Rubin Kazan in Group F, which was the only group in the competition in which all four teams were winners of their respective domestic leagues.
The Beneamata's opening match in the group stage was against Barcelona at the San Siro and, as expected, the Nerazzurri played a defensive game, relying on rare counter-attacks as their only threat. The 0-0 scoreline didn't do much good for their European credentials and their next group game ended in a 1-1 draw with Rubin in Russia, suggesting that, like in previous years, Inter could struggle in Europe this time around too.
Inter failed to win on Matchday 3 too, as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Dynamo Kiev at home to put them in real danger of missing out on the knockout stages of the competition. But the narrow 2-1 win in Ukraine against Dynamo on Matchday 4 reignited their Champions League credentials, although Diego Milito and Wesley Sneijder scored in the last five minutes of normal time to bag all three points.
But on Matchday 5, Inter were taught a footballing lesson by Barcelona as they went down 2-0 in Camp Nou, putting their progress in jeopardy. The Spanish champions had Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the bench but still defeated Inter with ease; in fact, it could easily have been 4-0 or 5-0 in favour of the Catalans. That night in Barcelona the world observed how cruelly unforgiving Barcelona's football can be and how depressingly morose Inter's game is on occasions.
However, the Nerazzurri progressed to the knockout stages after defeating Rubin 2-0 at the San Siro. This meant that Inter finished runners-up in Group F with nine points, just two behind group winners Barcelona.
Last 16
Inter were handed a very difficult tie in the pre-quarterfinals as they were drawn to confront Premier League club Chelsea, Jose Mourinho's former side. It was a tie between the strongest team in Italy and the strongest team in England and given that the first leg was to be played in Milan, many suggested that the Blues would be the favourites
source:goal.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment