The Internazionale settled with authority the neighborhood debate of the last derby in Milan. On Tuesday, against a Milan condemned to bite the lock after the sudden 0-2 in the first leg, Inter eliminated their rival for the first time in the history of the highest European competition and became the first Champions League finalist to win. will decide in Istanbul on June 10. It will be his sixth final since 1964. Surely he will not march as a favourite. But there is no doubt that a team tempered in the old Italian art of resistance comes from here. The psychological advantage will be yours.
1
Andre Onana, Darmian, Alessandro Bastoni, Acerbi, Denzel Dumfries, Mkhitaryan (Brozovic, min. 43), Calhanoglu, Dimarco (Robin Gosens, min. 66), Barella (Gagliardini, min. 84), Lautaro Martínez (Joaquin Correa, min. 84) and Dzeko (Lukaku, min. 66)
0
Mike Maignan, Malick Thiaw (Pierre Kalulu Kyatengwa, min. 63), Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernández, Sandro Tonali, Rade Krunic, Rafael Leao, Brahim Diaz (Divock Origi, min. 76), Junior Messias (Alexis Saelemaekers, min. 76) and Giroud
goals 1-0 min. 73: Lautaro Martinez.
Referee Clement Turpin
Yellow cards Malick Thiaw (min. 55), Sandro Tonali (min. 78), Rade Krunic (min. 80) and Fikayo Tomori (min. 81)
Inter arrived half an hour late at the San Siro. Federico Caprilli boulevard, the main access road to the stadium, was clogged with cars and the team bus, followed by hundreds of fans on mopeds, ran aground like a swarm in a pipe without the police battalion escorting it being able to do anything else. to utter gasps on their useless motorcycles. For a few moments the elegant Milan, the distinguished metropolis of Lombardy, always dynamic, even if it is not necessary, was paralyzed by love. Love for institutions, for memories. Because of the expectations of soccer, more than because of the reality of a game that is barely a decadent vestige of more beautiful times.
So much agitation, so much fervor for productivity, so much Armani, so much Zegna, so much Miu-Miu, it caused the rebound effect. immobility. Paralysis. If Inter was late on the field, Milan entered the game late. It usually happens when football loses its ornaments and the footballers are left alone in front of the ball. When the size of the problems exceeds the capacity, space is reduced, time passes fleetingly, and the fans cheer like the fisherman who throws his bait in the bathtub. Milan had to come back from 0-2 and the first attack exposed the kind of epic that awaited them: it was a goal kick from Maignan, a 70-meter lob for Giroud to bring down surrounded by six opponents.
The true dimension of Milan was manifested in the fact that their entire game gravitated around Brahim Díaz, a 23-year-old boy on loan from Madrid, who without having his most splendid squad of the decade cannot find a place for him on the bench. Neither midfielder nor striker, Brahim moved freely, but alone. Exempted from the most bitter tasks of defense by the seasonal double pivot that Tonali and Krunic make up behind him, his mission was either heroic or absurd. They asked him to look for cracks in the concrete. Not even with a magnifying glass did he discover them. Always closely followed by a midfielder and an interista central defender, the man from Malaga sought associations with people who were too heavy to be able to arrive in time to offer themselves for the touch. Messias, on the right, is a wagon; Giroud, in front, is a giant with swollen ankles who showed obvious difficulties in moving around; and Rafael Leão, on the left, is a Hercules so loaded that to take off he needs a kilometer of runway. While Brahim was looking for combinations, his harassers wrapped him up like a cannelloni.
If Milan went to the game to verify his death, Inter did it to adjust the marks. Acerbi advanced lines and the ten outfield players went up to the opposite field to measure the distances and familiarize themselves with their opposing pairs. After the auscultation, Inter crouched in their field, the ranks tight. Milan’s only clear chance in an hour came after 20 minutes, when due to an accident at the start of the game, Tonali took advantage of an open lane and crossed to the penalty spot. Brahim must have felt perplexed: for once discovered and with the ball. The shot from him, slightly angled, was intercepted by Onana. What followed was Milan’s long march—not one more shot between the posts—to surrender.
the highest paid
Armed by five full-length defenders and three vigilant interiors, no wingers, no whims, few adventures, Inter had become strong in the lock community, when before the break it was further reinforced. It happened that Mkhitaryan got injured and was replaced by Brozovic. The Croatian, who has suffered muscle contractures since he exhausted himself in the World Cup, lives on the edge of fibrillar rupture. But it is not for nothing that he is the highest paid man on the squad. His entry into the field had a devastating effect for the climbers. His omnipresence, his sense of administration, his dedicated wandering asking for the ball everywhere, gave his teammates the certainty that each one would do what the game script ordered in due time and form. At the rate of their passes, Milan became a group of pilgrims with no destination.
Lautaro’s goal, after an exchange with Lukaku in the penalty area, discovered the ineffectiveness of Milan’s central defenders to anticipate and provide firmness. In the absence of hope, the errors of Thiaw and Tomori, consolidated the elimination, fortunately, of the black and blue fans, who made the irons of San Siro tremble by dribbling.
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