Internazionale Main Thread

[RomaShield27]

Muntari's red card did seem very harsh.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/2022422/

[Messinterista]

Catania 0 - 2 Inter
Stankovic 5 (I), Ibrahimovic 71 (I)
Stadio Massimino

Inter managed to earn a 2-0 victory in Sicily despite Sulley Ali Muntari's first half dismissal. With Juventus losing in Udine, they go six points clear.

Tension was already running high in the Nerazzurri camp, as Jose Mourinho sat out a touchline ban, Adriano was suspended for three games after he was caught on camera punching an opponent and Mario Balotelli was dropped for "disciplinary reasons." Mourinho's last meeting with Catania prompted a public row with director Pietro Lo Monaco that dragged on for weeks with his claim the Coach "deserves a smack in the mouth."

The Sicilians had trio Mariano Izco, Christian Terlizzi and Ezequiel Carboni suspended. Marco Materazzi, Walter Samuel and Cristian Chivu joined the Inter injury list. Catania's last victory over the Nerazzurri was in 1966, followed by two goalless stalemates and 11 defeats.

Beppe Baresi sat on the Inter bench and it was a very windy evening in Sicily. The visitors poured forward from the start with a series of corner kicks and took the lead with a well-worked move after five minutes. Julio Cruz sprung the offside trap down the right to chip a cross on to the on-rushing Dejan Stankovic's head at the near post.

Catania were furious when they hit the back of the net when a cross was booted back into the path of Michele Paolucci for a goal from seven yards, but it was disallowed for dangerous play. It seemed an extremely harsh decision, as Morimoto clearly anticipated Nicolas Burdisso's diving header.

Moments later Ibrahimovic was rightly booked for a woeful dive in the box. Stankovic's low drive tested Albano Bizzarri, but the tension escalated further when Catania claimed Capuano was elbowed in the face.

Ibrahimovic's free kick shaved a coat of paint off the far post. Moments later he skipped past a defender at the byline for a rising angled drive that cracked against the woodwork.

The tension was sky high on 31 minutes, as Sulley Ali Muntari was shown a straight red card for a clumsy sliding tackle on Tedesco. It is not the first time Muntari has been in trouble for disciplinary reasons, but he seemed at first perplexed and then angry at the harsh decision.

Moments later Giuseppe Mascara flashed a shot across the face of goal, then Julio Cesar beat away a Paolucci strike from point-blank range at the near post. The Massimino was a cauldron as the fans urged their team forward.

Esteban Cambiasso was forced to make a goalline clearance to deny Catania an equaliser on the stroke of half-time, as the corner came out to Morimoto's angled drive and it had beaten Julio Cesar.

Capuano cut back to leave Douglas Maicon stranded and the shot flashed across the face of goal.

After the break Ibrahimovic tried to do it all alone, firing at the goalkeeper's legs at the near post rather than passing to Cruz.

Moments later Mascara's deflected snapshot from distance cannoned off the base of the upright with Julio Cesar rooted to the spot. Capuano scuffed his shot to go wide.

The Inter goalkeeper flapped at a Tedesco cross-shot and Cruz ballooned over from a promising position.

However, 10-man Inter doubled their lead! Stankovic's long pass over the defence allowed Ibrahimovic to spring the offside trap and waltz past the on-rushing goalkeeper to deposit into an empty net.

It was nearly 3-0, as Bizzarri palmed a Javier Zanetti shot out of the bottom near corner, while Julio Cesar denied Davide Baiocco a way back into the game.
Catania: Bizzarri; Silvestri, Silvestre, Stovini, Capuano (Llama 72); Martinez ( D'Amico 88 ), Baiocco, Tedesco; Morimoto, Paolucci (Spinesi 76), Mascara

Inter: Julio Cesar; Maicon, Cordoba, Burdisso, Santon (Rivas 87); Zanetti, Cambiasso, Muntari; Stankovic (Figo 91); Ibrahimovic, Cruz (Maxwell 64)

Ref: Rocchi

Sent off: Muntari 31 (I)

Source: http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_ ... t-int.html

=======================================================

If its not injuries its suspensions, we are really making it tough for ourselves huh? Guess the scudetto won't be given to us this year , we gonna fight for it one way or another.

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Lombardiamia]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[zafferano]

[Lombardiamia]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Messinterista]

[Lombardiamia]

[Lombardiamia]

Muntari got only a 1 match suspension.....

[Totally FRANK]

So, who are we going to play in midfield? Chivu was the one filling in when muntari was out but he is injured again.Would we push stankovic back and play jimi or even figo/mancini in the hole.

It was also good to see rivas back on the pitch and get some minutes in his legs. We need him now as samuel and chivu are both injured. Burdisso had a good game yesterday but he is always a disaster to happen.

Santon is amazing. I just hope he doesn't become pig headed like balotelli.

[RomaShield27]

ZLATAN BACK INTER THE GROOVE
www.sportinglife.com/football

Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes his team are back on track to clinch their fourth successive Serie A title having regained the impressive form they appeared to have lost at the beginning of the year.

The Nerazzurri, who remain unbeaten at the San Siro in the league this season, go into Sunday's encounter against Torino with a six-point lead over nearest title contenders Juventus.

With just one point collected in their opening two games of 2009, Inter fans were concerned.

However, Wednesday's 2-0 victory at Catania which followed their 1-0 triumph against Sampdoria has seen the Nerazzurri regain their touch.

"We have shown strength, unity and focus," said Ibrahimovic, who struck his team's second at Catania.

"You win titles like this. But the road is stand third-placed AC Milan were held to a 1-1 draw by Genoa.

"We got three important points," admitted Ibrahimovic, whose team played for almost an hour with 10 men after Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari was sent off.

"It's not easy to play with 10 men for so long and without our coach on the bench," the Sweden striker said.

[Messinterista]

Moratti provides Balotelli update - Thursday 29 January, 2009

Inter chief Massimo Moratti has given the latest on the Mario Balotelli situation as transfer speculation continues.

Balotelli has fallen out with Coach Jose Mourinho over his attitude towards training.

Having been initially left out of the squad to face Catania yesterday, Balotelli snubbed Mourinho's late call-up after Adriano's suspension was confirmed.

There have been reports that several clubs, including West Ham, are chasing the Azzurrini hitman's signature, but Moratti insists he is staying where he is.

“I haven't spoken to the Coach today, but there are no new developments,â€

[Totally FRANK]

I don't know where they come up with such things
---------------------------------------------------------------
Italian Public Ministry Alleges Inter In Match Fixing Scandal - Report
Another match-fixing scandal could be about to rock Italian football once again...


Italian champions Inter are alledged to have thrown away matches towards the end of last season in order to increase Scudetto odds, according to a damning report which has been released by the Italian Public Ministry and published in Friday's edition of Il Giornale.

The Milan-based paper leads with the headline: "Public Ministry: Inter Threw Away Games To Help Facilitate Gambling Bets."

The report claims the Nerazzurri, who eventually won the title on the last day of the season, drew and lost games in order to increase gambling odds regarding last season's Scudetto race.

In Particular, the report focuses on games from week 24 onwards where a number of betting agencies stopped taking bets on Inter winning the Scudetto.

The enquiry was carried out by Police at the request of the Public Ministry who are investigating allegations regarding a series of phone calls between the then Inter coach Roberto Mancini and a Mafia associate called Domenico Brescia.

Brescia is an Inter fan and he already faced the Italian justice system regarding allegations of drug dealing.

The report also highlights a number of different incidents during games and alleges that Zlatan Ibrahimovic's return from injury was postponed on purpose.

In addition, there are claims that Julio Cruz was told to leave the penalty in the penultimate game of the season against Siena to Marco Materazzi who missed, and the game ended 2-2. This meant the gap between Inter and Roma on the final day of the season was just one point.

Ibrahimovic returned from injury on the final day of the season to help Inter win against Parma and lift the Scudetto.

These claims are likely to rock the Nerazzurri as another scandal hits the Italian game.

[Totally FRANK]

Looks like Obinna has been loaned to Betis...

[Dejan-Stankovic]

Lol.. Can't wait to see this proof..

[Messinterista]

[Lombardiamia]

Italian Public Ministry Alleges Inter In Match Fixing Scandal - Report

Another match-fixing scandal could be about to rock Italian football once again...

Italian champions Inter are alledged to have thrown away matches towards the end of last season in order to increase Scudetto odds, according to a damning report which has been released by the Italian Public Ministry and published in Friday's edition of Il Giornale.
The Milan-based paper leads with the headline: "Public Ministry: Inter Threw Away Games To Help Facilitate Gambling Bets."
The report claims the Nerazzurri, who eventually won the title on the last day of the season, drew and lost games in order to increase gambling odds regarding last season's Scudetto race.
In Particular, the report focuses on games from week 24 onwards where a number of betting agencies stopped taking bets on Inter winning the Scudetto.
The enquiry was carried out by Police at the request of the Public Ministry who are investigating allegations regarding a series of phone calls between the then Inter coach Roberto Mancini and a Mafia associate called Domenico Brescia.
Brescia is an Inter fan and he already faced the Italian justice system regarding allegations of drug dealing.
The report also highlights a number of different incidents during games and alleges that Zlatan Ibrahimovic's return from injury was postponed on purpose.
In addition, there are claims that Julio Cruz was told to leave the penalty in the penultimate game of the season against Siena to Marco Materazzi who missed, and the game ended 2-2. This meant the gap between Inter and Roma on the final day of the season was just one point.
Ibrahimovic returned from injury on the final day of the season to help Inter win against Parma and lift the Scudetto.
These claims are likely to rock the Nerazzurri as another scandal hits the Italian game.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1707/inter/ ... -scandal-r


lollll Before anyone starts to panic, note that these are rumours coming out from Il Giornale - a former Silvio Berlusconi owned newspaper, now owned by his brother....And the article mentions no proofs or anything..
And we tried to almost lose a Scudetto for some bets ??

P.S. Players CANNOT bet on serie A matches.It is illegal and every player knows that. I said this in case someone comes up saying that maybe some of our players used to bet on Inter & lose on purpose..

[Lombardiamia]

Oh sorry, I didnt see this in here, so I posted it in the main section.

ANyway, as I said on the other thread, Il Giornale is a former Silvio Berlusconi newspaper, now owned by his brother....that should sum things up..