Internazionale Main Thread III

[Messinterista]

'Great night' beckons at White Hart Lane
Published: Monday 1 November 2010, 20.45CET

As Rafael Benítez aims to secure FC Internazionale Milano's place in the last 16 at Tottenham Hotspur FC, Harry Redknapp is looking forward to "a great night's football" at White Hart Lane.

The top two in Group A come face to face at White Hart Lane on Tuesday in a fixture that marks a return to England for FC Internazionale Milano coach Rafael Benítez. The former Liverfekkin'wankscum FC manager has guided the holders to the section summit three games in and is keen to rubber-stamp qualification with two matches to spare. He knows, though, that Harry Redknapp's side will offer a stern test on home soil and deflected the notion that his impressive UEFA Champions League pedigree gives Inter an advantage.

Harry Redknapp, Tottenham manager
We've got a massive game, a great game to look forward to. "It's fantastic for Tottenham to be playing the holders in the Champions League at White Hart Lane". Of course [I'd settle for a 1-0 win] – the points are very important. It's still a tight group so we need to get something. With Werder Bremen playing Twente, if one of those teams win then we need to make sure we get some points.

We're playing a team where the goalkeeper [Júlio César] was voted the best in the Champions League last season, Maicon was voted the best defender, [Wesley] Sneijder the best midfielder and [Diego] Milito the best forward, so they've got real quality. They are the champions of Italy and the Champions League holders so it is a very tough game but I fancy us at home with the crowd and great atmosphere. We've got to set a high tempo, play the way we want to play, and I think it will be a great night's football.

Rafael Benítez, Inter coach
We have 21 players with us and all are available for selection – all teams have injuries. "Inter are a very good team and that is why we are where we are at the moment". It is not because I am a Champions League specialist. In the past, the team found it difficult to get through the group stage. If we win, we are through and can relax and prepare more for league games.

I would like to see a game under our control but it depends on them. Watching their game against Manchester United, it looked like they were concentrating on this. I think this was their priority – that was my feeling. After good times at Liverfekkin'wankscum, I was really pleased to be there and now I'm really pleased to be in Italy. It's a different style of football and league but we will try to do well.

Team news
• Tottenham
Rafael van der Vaart trained on Monday despite limping off with a hamstring injury at the weekend, when Younes Kaboul make his first appearance in over a month after recovering from a hamstring injury. Ledley King (groin), Vedran Ćorluka (groin), Michael Dawson (knee) and Jermain Defoe (ankle) remain out of contention but Tom Huddlestone has recovered from his ankle injury according to Redknapp, who will start with Carlo Cudicini in goal due to Heurelho Gomes's suspension.

• Inter
Milito is available after more than three weeks out with a thigh injury, while Esteban Cambiasso and Julio César are absent having sustained similar injuries in Friday's game against Genoa CFC. Cristian Chivu was rested for that match and is in the squad, but Dejan Stanković (calf) remains on the sidelines.

Weekend results
30/10/10 Manchester United FC 2-0 Tottenham
(Vidić 31, Nani 84)
Redknapp's side stretched their winless run to three matches with a defeat at Old Trafford. Tottenham have not kept a clean sheet in their last 12 matches.

29/10/10 Genoa CFC 0-1 Inter
(Muntari 45+3)
Luca Castellazzi, 35, made his first league appearance for Inter as a second-half replacement for the injured Júlio César. He made his Nerazzurri debut against SV Werder Bremen on Matchday 2. Inter are six matches unbeaten in all competitions, winning four and drawing two.

Did you know?
Benítez's first Premiershit game as Liverfekkin'wankscum manager was a 1-1 draw at Tottenham in August 2004. He won three times there in eight visits but lost all three games at White Hart Lane against Redknapp.

Source: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague ... +hart+lane

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This has to be Rafa's biggest test to date and I will seriously be impressed if we get the win. I am disregarding our Serie A performance on the weekend as I feel that Rafa was paying more attention to this fixture. Can't wait for the match.

[Totally FRANK]

An interesting update from Italy by Goal.com Italia's Francesco Giambertone:

"Next to San Siro there are about 200 Inter supporters waiting for Real Madrid bus to arrive to face off against Milan on Wednesday. They want to welcome their former coach, Jose Mourinho.

There are also two big banners, reading "OBRIGADO POR SEMPRE JOSE" and another with "INFINITAMENTE GRAZIE!"

[Messinterista]

We are 2 - 0 down Are we playing as bad as the score line reads?

[Messinterista]

[red]

[Lombardiamia]

Bale's ripped us a new ass once again.......holy shit what a player. He singlehandedly scored 5 out of 6 goals we've conceded against Spurs....

[RomaShield27]

What was wrong with Maicon? Whatever about being up against a very on-form and pacey player like Bale, there are things you can do to stop him. Close him down quicker, show him inside you, but don't let him simply run around you time and time again. Bleedin terrible he was. But worse that that, really, Maicon just looked like he didn't want to know. Like he couldn't be bothered. Not what you'd expect from the supposed best right-full in the world.

Inter did suffer a lot in midfield as well, Cambiasso was a massive loss.

[Messinterista]

[Lombardiamia]

Maicon's off, physicaly and mentaly. He should have been at madrid for a rich early retirement.

[Messinterista]

If we do put him on the market, we are not going to get anywhere near the amounts that were being offered by Madrid last season. Santon should be playing at RB now. I don't want us to bench him too much where he starts thinking that he has to leave to get playing time. This is going to hurt his Azzurri chances.

[red]

[red]

[Totally FRANK]

[Messinterista]

I want to hold back my judgement on Rafa for now. Although, imo he has one strike next to his name already, the European Super Cup loss. Strike two is not winning the World Club Challenge and we all know what strike 3 will be.

[Messinterista]

[RomaShield27]

Bale is in terrific form and is a massive threat to any team he plays against at the moment. That said, he is not Messi, in that he does not have an endless bag of tricks to mystify his opponent and therefore you know what he's going to do 90% of the time: run at you with pace. It can be hard to play against, for sure, but there are ways to combat that, such as doubling up on him (which Zanetti could of done more off) and making sure he doesn't get a run outside you. Show him inside and then collectively close him down. The way Maicon (and later Lucio for the third goal) continually got burned on the outside was just appalling defending and he showed no signs of adapting. Against a powerful and pacey winger he will get by you sometimes, fair enough, but it simply shouldn't happen all the time. Did Maicon even get booked at all? I don't think he did? Surely one rather crude way of stopping him would be to lift him out of it at some stage. It may not look good but it at least shows a little bit of effort and may make Bale think twice, but Maicon couldn't even do that.

And I wouldn't be too harsh on Rafa. I'm not his biggest fan, but Spurs are just in terrific form at the moment and have players on fire. Not just Bale, but Huddlestone, Van da Fart, Modric, Lennon, Kaboul, and lord forbid even the likes of Crouch and Pavlachenko are playing well. White Hart Lane is also a very hard place to play and they raise their game for big matches like that.

[Totally FRANK]

Jose's Milan return highlights task facing beaten Benitez

Wednesday 03 November 2010 10:54

Jose Mourinho swept back into Milan yesterday, strolling triumphantly through the arrivals hall at Malpensa airport.

The return of the Special One was always going to be big news and the Inter fans had gathered in numbers to hail the man who had led the club to an amazing Treble last season – a couple had even paid €320 for a room in the same hotel as Real Madrid just to say they had “slept” close to the man with the Midas touch.

In the early hours of this morning Rafa Benitez slipped quietly back through the same airport with no more than a sideways glance from a couple of cleaners and a few other weary travellers.

Having lost their Mou-Jo in the summer, Inter are becoming a pale shadow of their former self with each passing week and Benitez cannot seem to correct the slide which has seen the Nerazzurri drop off top place both at home and in their Champions League group.

Of course, they had a worse start in Europe last season when they could easily have gone out early on, but you always felt there was a steely resolve coupled with Jose’s tactical cunning to see them through.

Going into the game at Tottenham, Benitez had been forewarned off Gareth Bale’s pace and for that reason decided that the speedy Jonathan Biabiany should play in front of the labouring and out-of-sorts Douglas Maicon.

Unfortunately, the French winger was neither a defensive reinforcement nor an attacking threat so it was puzzling why he remained on the pitch for so long when the sharp and in-form Coutinho was left on the bench having done so much to hurt Harry Redknapp‘s side in the previous meeting.

One of the secrets of Mourinho’s success was his willingness to change his tactics quickly if he saw that his plans were not working - even if it was only ten minutes into the game.

The Spaniard’s reluctance to change allowed a situation to develop whereby Bale was embarrassing Maicon every time he picked up the ball. The right flank had already been torn to shreds long before Benitez made a change in personnel, and this was after the forewarning of the last 35 minutes of the home tie against Spurs where the same happened.

It was always going to be an evening where pace and the directness of the home side needed to be nullified, but with Biabiany and Goran Pandev pushing high up the flanks and Wesley Sneijder a mere spectator in the middle, there were massive gaps through the centre for the likes of Modric and Van der Vaart to exploit.

No doubt the presence of Esteban Cambiasso and Dejan Stankovic in the centre of midfield would have ensured Spurs did not have quite the same freedom to pin Inter to the edge of their own area, which was the what ultimately led to the first goal.

Neither Sully Muntari or Javier Zanetti got close enough to their opposite numbers and they are not the type of players at ease moving the ball forward, which meant that Sneijder was forced to drop back further to instigate attacks which in turn left Samuel Eto’o isolated.

However, even when out-numbered, the Cameroon striker caused the home defence all sorts of problems and his well-taken goal, which he made for himself, gave hope of something better with ten minutes remaining.

What Benitez will hopefully have learnt from this sobering experience is that Eto’o needs to play alongside Diego Milito in a front two, with Sneijder in behind.

The Argentine’s belated entry seemed to make the lights finally come on throughout the team, with his first run taking him into a shooting position and visibly giving his team-mates some much-needed belief.

Another rasping drive which clipped the bar when the game was already lost suggests that the Prince will be back on the goal trail soon.

Ideally, Inter would line-up with the aforementioned trio pushing forward, with Zanetti on the right, Cambiasso in the centre and Stankovic on the left of the midfield.

The defence is what it is, and Maicon and Cristian Chivu, who once again had words with Benitez during the game over his positioning, would benefit from experience and a bit of bite in front of them, while Lucio and Walter Samuel are aging but still massively effective central defenders.

Victory at home to Twente in three weeks time will ensure safe passage to the knock-out stages and provide Benitez with another bargaining chip when trying to persuade Massimo Moratti that he needs to open the cheque book in January.

All is not lost, but clearly that Inter swagger - like Mourinho - is long gone.

[RomaShield27]

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/dirty-tackle

[Totally FRANK]

Mou show: "Che gioia tornare dalla gente del mio cuore. E quel gesto..."
03.11.2010 20:00 di Fabrizio Romano articolo letto 7479 volte

E' sempre, indiscutibilmente, José Mourinho. Evidentemente caricato dall'accoglienza principesca che i tifosi dell'Inter gli hanno preparato per il suo ritorno a Milano, l'allenatore del Real Madrid, ma più che altro lo strepitoso artefice del triplete nerazzurro, ha dato spettacolo nel pre-partita di Milan-Real. Lo Special One non si è smentito, ed è andato subito a rispondere alle provocazioni rossonere con un gesto, un numero tre indicato ai tifosi milanisti, per ricordare loro che la tripletta l'ha fatta lui con l'altra squadra di Milano, tripletta condita da due derby stradominati ed ancora indelebili anche nel ricordo del portoghese. Appena arrivato in campo per il prepartita, Mourinho è stato accolto da una marea di prevedibili fischi, ma secondo gli inviati di Sky anche da tante urla nei suoi confronti tutt'altro che simpatiche. Si sarà mica spaventato, José? Tutt'altro. Così come sfidò i tifosi del Barcellona dei titani nella notte del Camp Nou, è partito all'assalto dei rossoneri con quel gesto di contro-provocazione.

Ma non è tutto. Mourinho è anche un personaggio che nasconde un'immensa umanità dietro al personaggio che tutti conosciamo, e lo ha dimostrato appena arrivato a San Siro: visibilmente emozionato, José si è lasciato andare ad un bell'occhiolino verso le telecamere ed è passato a salutare tutti gli uomini che lavorano 'dietro le quinte' negli spogliatoi del 'Meazza' con grande calore. Tra sorrisi e fischi, sottolineamo che Mourinho quel gesto del numero tre che vedete in foto lo ha proposto appena arrivato allo stadio già dal suo pullman, mentre tutti i tifosi del Milan lo trattavano - diciamo così - in maniera non proprio cortese. Lui ha risposto serissimo con quelle tre dita alzate, che fanno sorridere il suo fedele assistente Rui Faria, comodamente seduto alle sue spalle. Poi, tutto si è ripetuto sul terreno di gioco di San Siro.

Durante la gara, Mou è stato letteralmente torturato da un laser verde: fiero com'è, l'allenatore non ha mostrato segni di disturbo. E dopo la rete di Inzaghi per il 2-1 in nettissimo fuorigioco, José ha detto al guardalinee di mettersi gli occhiali. Quando, a fine gara, il suo Real Madrid strappa il gol dell'incredibile pareggio che gli consente di rimanere imbattuto in questa stagione, il portoghese si regala una corsa verso i suoi ragazzi che ricorda quelle di Kiev o contro il Siena con la sua Inter.

Ai microfoni di Sky Sport, alla termine di questa notte magica del suo ritorno, José Mourinho commenta la gara: "Il primo gol del Milan è Pepe che scivola, il secondo è un fuorigioco chiarissimo. Ma non parlo di arbitri e altro, dico che il Real ha fatto una gara strepitosa dimostrando di essere una squadra che lavora per arrivare al top. Il Milan ha mostrato carattere, non calcisticamente al top ma con grande grinta, da Gattuso a Inzaghi, ma anche Seedorf, hanno avuto coraggio e carattere. Poi ho rischiato tanto anche io con due difensori nel finale, ma il pareggio era giustissimo, non potevamo mai uscire sconfitti. Questa è una squadra giovanissima, un Real che può crescere molto", ha detto, per poi aggiungere: "Le tre dita erano per i tifosi dell'Inter, non per quelli del Milan. Loro non mi piacciono, i tifosi rossoneri, ma sportivamente: con il Milan ho una rivalità più che sana. Sarebbe già fantastico vincere la metà di quanto ho fatto all'Inter. Una coppa e mezzo andrebbe benissimo. Il ritorno? Ho provato una gioia incredibile a tornare qui, e trovare persone che sono e saranno sempre nel mio cuore". Finisce qua, con queste frasi commoventi, la notte del ritorno del portoghese, assolutamente fantastica: José uno di noi.

http://www.fcinternews.it/?action=read&idnotizia=30971

[Messinterista]

Inter stars visit Mourinho
It is reported several Inter stars, including Marco Materazzi and Samuel Eto’o, went to visit Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho today.

The Special One is in town for tonight’s Champions League match against Milan and took the opportunity to reconnect with some of his former players.

Sources suggest that Materazzi, Julio Cesar, Eto’o and Mou’s former assistant manager Beppe Baresi visited the hotel where Real Madrid are staying.

Mourinho has been given a very warm welcome ‘home’ by Inter fans, who held up banners and chanted his name at the airport and outside the hotel.

It is reported many of the Nerazzurri supporters in the city have snapped up tickets for tonight’s game in order to cheer on Real against arch-rivals Milan.

Source: http://www.football-italia.net/nov03p.html
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Stuff like this surely has to hurt Rafa's confidence.