“There Were Many Who Could Not Wait For Us To Slip Up”

Written By Onyeka Daniel

It was a dominating display from Inter Milan against Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico as the Nerazzurri Inter sent a signal in the Scudetto race with a dominant 6-0 victory against the in-form home team to go within three points of the league leaders, Atalanta while also having a game in hand after their match against Fiorentina was postponed recently.

More Details

There was a problem for Lazio early on in the game, as Mario Gila went off injured to make way for Samuel Gigot.He was immediately involved, because Inter had the ball in the net after a corner when Ivan Provedel parried the Denzel Dumfries header into the path of Stefan de Vrij, but Lautaro Martinez was offside. VAR also spotted Dumfries had nodded it onto the wrist of Gigot.

LATEST POSTS

So Hakan Calhanoglu converted a penalty to give them the lead. Inter added a second moments later, as Dumfries stood up a cross to the back post for his fellow wing-back Dimarco’s cushioned left-foot volley from nine yards. Things went from bad to worse for Lazio, also losing Gigot after a knock to the back of the head during the penalty incident.

The coach was this forced to move Adam Marusic into a makeshift centre-back role. The Nerazzurri went 3-0 up with a sensational strike from Barella, who controlled the Calhanoglu pass, flicked it up with his left foot and smashed the simply unstoppable right-foot half-volley into the top corner from a good 23 metres out. Moments later it was 4-0.

Nuno Tavares was caught napping as Dumfries snuck up behind him for a huge header on the Alessandro Bastoni cross. Barella could’ve had a fifth, but opted for a back-heel flick instead when sent through by Marcus Thuram’s counter-attack. Carlos Augusto helped win back the ball from Loum Tchaouna in the final third, then was ready to meet the return pass from Dimarco to score from a tight angle following a cheeky, quality turn.

Thuram instead did it himself for 6-0, twisting and turning to confuse makeshift centre-back Marusic and blast in at the near bottom corner. For Simone Inzaghi, he admitted that ‘some people couldn’t wait’ for Inter to slip up, so they had to react to the critics. ‘I am very proud to be their coach.’ It is always an emotional return to the Stadio Olimpico him.

It should be remembered that he spent most of his career with Lazio as first a player and then coach, so he was in no mood to gloat after this thumping victory. “Above all, beating a team that was in an excellent period of form was important. We didn’t lose our shape in the first 20 minutes, then raised the level and after the third goal it was all downhill,” Inzaghi told DAZN.

“These lads have been giving me this huge effort for three and a half years, I am very proud to be their coach. We know we’ve achieved nothing yet, but it is a very good win against a team that was in great shape.” Inter scored with six different players, so does this confirm the title holders remain the strongest overall squad in the league? “The verdict will be given on the pitch,” replied Inzaghi.

“This is the way we prepared the game after Leverkusen, we knew Lazio’s qualities and the lads had the right interpretation. Now we have a game in hand, after the last two in Serie A for this year we’ve got the Supercoppa Italiana and it gets even more complicated.” Before this triumph, Inter had only won one of their head-to-head clashes this season in Serie A.

They lost to Milan in the derby, drawing against Juventus and Napoli, but were also coming off a 1-0 Champions League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen. This puts them on 34 points, technically within reach of Atalanta on 37 considering they have a game in hand. “We’ve been very consistent over the last two and a half months in Serie A, but so have many other sides, including Lazio.

“You can see the table, it’s still very tight. The goal against Parma irritated me because we didn’t deserve it for the way that we were playing,” said Inzaghi of that 3-1 victory, spoiling the clean sheet. “These lads deserve applause, because we’ve been playing non-stop for a month without Acerbi and Pavard, so we don’t have as many options to rotate.

“I had several players booked today as well, so I had to bring in Darmian as a centre-back and he did it with great intelligence.”I nzaghi was praised for the way he has transformed the 3-5-2 tactics from the approach taken by predecessor Antonio Conte at Inter, and while he tried to deflect the compliments from the DAZN pundits, he also took a moment to clap back at the critics.

“The thing I am proudest of is the way these players put the effort in every time, which is not easy playing at this tempo and so often. It’s a great group, I am trying to rotate as much as possible because they all deserve to play. “There were many people who since we lost to Milan in September could not wait for us to slip up, which we did in Leverkusen.

Read Also: Victor Osimhen’s January Release Clause Revealed

“A lot was said, but fortunately, my players and I don’t listen to the media and just keep focusing on the game.” He concluded. For the team, they will be back in action again soon enough as they will be up against Udinese on Thursday in the Coppa Italia at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium before facing Como in another Monday night fixture, next week in the Serie A.

Do you have a story tip?
Kindly Email: keepup@bettitude.com

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube

Bookmark (0)

Please login to bookmark