Internazionale Main Thread III

[Totally FRANK]

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/04/28/ ... o-tactics/

It’s easy when looking at football games – especially for a website like this – to simply say that the winning manager got it right, and the losing one got it wrong – but it’s hard to argue in this case. Mourinho remains the master, and tactics remain the key to winning football games.

[Dejan-Stankovic]

I went to work and have to go back again later on no sleep. Honestly the adrenalin was still pumping in me for hours after. 10 men for over an hour yet we barely wilted and stuck strong against Barca. Anti-football shit is starting to come out but there's nothing much you can do when backed into a corner like that. Once again, the team rating is 10/10 with no individual 10 performance but the entire team deserves m.o.m from Cesar's saves to J.Z, Cambiasso and Chivu's destruction job on Messi. I only remember about 2-3 fouls on Messi through the entire game and yet we managed to subdue him with a single yellow going to Lucio, Samuel or Maicon. I feel bad for Motta but now that I've settled and seen a few replays, it was probably a yellow. Still doesn't excuse Busquets for what he did but I'll get to that later on.

So Pandev got injured in the warm-up? A bit strange considering he's the only one Mou didn't mention in the press conference and I wonder if he was just a smokescreen for Chivu to play a bit more defensively on the left? The zonal marking side of things was once again spot on. I think we had a bit of help though from Barca tbh; once we were down to 10 I thought it was just going to be wave after wave of attack, especially in the last 10 mins and yet, all we got was 5 meter passing and barely any direct play into the box. Then once Ibra was subbed, they missed the strong body in order to play exactly that way and could barely find any space except for the header.

And lastly, I for one am glad that Barca's ugly little head has appeared. Gods of football aside, the play acting and even trying to get Mou to stop celebrating as well as the sprinklers etc shows a different side to them that I hope is not forgotten.

Was their goal offside? I didn't think it was but there was no line thrown down on the graphic so did anyone see anything different?

[Oram]

[Lombardiamia]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

Gazzetta dello Sport
Inter's wall of glory
The Nerazzurri resist for 68 minutes with 10 men
Inter are in the Final for the first time in 38 years
Juve: Andrea Agnelli is the new President
Sporting justice: Moggi is barred from football for life

Corriere dello Sport
Heroic Inter
They resisted without fear with 10 men
Inter eliminate the great Barcelona
An Agnelli returns as President of Juventus
Italian FA: 'Moggi must be barred'
Milan-Ronaldinho: It's up to Berlusconi to decide on renewal

---------------------------------

Wtf is this? Anyone heard anything about these?

[Dejan-Stankovic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzNlQ61htU4

lol look at 17 secs in haha

[Lombardiamia]

[Lombardiamia]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Lombardiamia]

[Messinterista]

[Messinterista]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

I'm still not over this game MI. It was just crazy shit.

We don't even have that much time to celebrate as we now have another 3 finals for the Scudetto with the initiative ours again. We also get to play after Roma with the advantage of knowing their result away to Parma which can be a tricky game. Forza Biabiany & Jimenez!! Siena have a massive chance of being relegated after this weeks result and that could be good news for us when we play them in the last round.

In terms of the team, basically the entire starting 11 were out on their feet after the Barca game and now it looks like Pandev won't make it depending on how bad his injury is. We also have to see how Sneijder has pulled up too after his effort. A positive sign for me is how good both Mariga and Arna looked vs Atalanta and we'll most likely need to look towards them, atleast as subs, for Lazio.

[Totally FRANK]

[Totally FRANK]

A Special night for every Interista

Thursday 29 April 2010 11:44

“It is not me; it is us,â€

[Totally FRANK]

[Totally FRANK]

Italy hails Inter's 'gladiators' after Champions League triumph

• Today's Italian newspapers are effusive in their praise for Inter
• 'If one team seemed to have played uselessly, it wasn't Inter'

Gazzetta dello Sport likened them to a pack of lions, Corriere dello Sport to gladiators, and La Stampa to a blade. If Inter's 3-1 victory over Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final was characterised by the Italian press as football from another planet, then the 1-0 defeat last night that secured aggregate victory and a place in the final was altogether more familiar.

"This glorious defeat was the exact replica of [Helenio] Herrera, getting the most and profitable use out of a previous result," announces Mario Sconcerti in Corriere della Sera, referencing the manager who led Inter to their last European Cup triumph in 1965. "Barcelona always had the ball and the lack of attacking play from Inter was, let's say it, embarrassing. But there were never any dangers. In the end if one team seemed to have played uselessly, it wasn't Inter."

If catenaccio has come to be viewed as something of a dirty word in recent years, associated with the worst kind of defensive clogging, then La Repubblica's Luigi Panella was not the only one to hail last night's "splendid" example. "Inter were closed but also awake," wrote Roberto Beccantini in La Stampa. "Like a flick knife."

José Mourinho unsurprisingly takes plenty of the plaudits after leading Inter to their first European Cup final in 38 years, with Gazzetta's Alberto Cerruti declaring him "the new great tactician of a new great Inter", and Tuttosport renaming Barcelona's stadium the "Camp Mou" but while most preferred to hail a team effort over any individual player's performance, Walter Samuel also received special plaudits. "Stick in a Pink Floyd CD, play 'Another brick in the wall' and imagine Samuel," suggests Cerruti's Gazzetta colleague Sebastiano Vernazza, naming the defender as man of the match.

"Vamos Inter. Vamos to the final in Madrid with Bayern after the sweetest defeat in the Nerazzurri's history," adds Cerruti. "A blow for Barcelona, the just reward for the heroic lions of Mourinho, capable of suffering with one animal less for more than an hour, and of roaring happily at the end. Inter qualify thanks to an extraordinary defence, led by Samuel. Not by chance do they call him 'The Wall'."

But while Inter were hailed, Barcelona have also been derided for their failure to create more chances against a team who played with 10 men for over an hour following the 28th-minute dismissal of Thiago Motta. "Ten were enough to stop the great Barça," points out Luigi Ferrajolo in Corriere dello Sport. "Ten gladiators, against timid and arrogant ball players."

"It was not the match we expected, but that was exclusively the fault and responsibility of the Catalans, truly disappointing and worse than expected. They said that Barça could mess up one match, but never the second: and yet between San Siro and the return leg, they messed up almost everything. [Lionel] Messi was a total disappointment, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic unwatchable."

Most were forgiving of the referee Franck de Bleeckere's decision to send Motta off, acknowledging that even if the offence did not merit a straight red, the player was already on a booking. A few acknowledged that the response might have been different if the result had been too, but Corriere della Sera's Sconcerti also notes, "this same referee disallowed unfairly Barcelona's second goal".

There was no desire to dwell on such incidents either way, after a night that might just be a turning point for Italian football after a difficult few years. "Inter approached Barcelona as an equal being, without any inferiority complex," writes Fabrizio Bocca in La Repubblica. "It was an achievement from which all of Italian football can gain: even if Inter are a team without any Italians."

[juventino_italiano]

Does anyone have a clip of Mourinho celebrating and Valdes trying to stop him???

[Oram]

[Oram]