Coppa Italia, fourth qualifying round: Bologna v. Inter
View attachment 275385Wednesday, 2 December 2015
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Seriously? Only a half full Stadio Renata Dall'Ara? Seriously? Do I need to run the marketing department for this club, too? How is it that Inter can't even half fill our stadium on a Wednesday night? Is it a foregone conclusion that we're going to lose? Did someone tell everyone but us that the fix was on?
It was the weirdest thing you might ever have a chance to see. Curva Sud was packed and rocking. At the other end were 4,000 or so Nerazzurri who'd made the grueling 2 hour drive to Bologna (or took the train, whatever). In the middle, were two virtually empty stands.
Ridiculous.
View attachment 275381Casarini rests, Migliore rests and Shawn Parker are hurt. So this is sort of a patched together line-up.
I instructed my players to sit deep and hit Inter on the counter and reminded them of the statistics which showed that Inter gave up the most goals after half time.
Not that they listened. The teams started off by trading chances in rather open play. Inter hitting straight through the middle despite us packing it and we exploited the flanks.
In the 9th minute, Loris Damonte was totally dangling the ball down the right flank. This was a side I'd never seen of his before. Now I know he played wing or right midfield for Messina in Serie C, but I'd utilized him in the middle because of his size, speed and sheer tenacity. After making the far more highly paid Gabriel Silva look rather foolish on several successive occasions, he decided to let someone else have the fun and passed inside and back to Simone Pasa.
Pasa one-timed a pass up to Antonio Vacca who gave it to Loris who'd run inside and took the pass at the edge of the box. Loris chipped the ball at Andrea Russotto. If he'd have done that during practice any of my coaches would have stopped the drill and yelled at him to pass it on the turf.
Andrea didn't care in the least, he cushioned the ball perfectly with the instep of his left foot and then in the next stride smashed the ball past a helpless Samir Handanovic.
1-0
Wow. One doesn't get to say
helpless and
Handanovic in the same sentence very often.
However, I would be covering my face with my hands inside a minute.
Directly from the restart, red hot Simone Zaza, Serie A's top scorer had the ball at his feet and was advancing toward our box looking for options. Bernardo stepped up with an immaculately time tackle which jarred the ball loose and dumped Zaza on his ****. But this is where everything went wrong.
First, instead of taking a couple of steps up and taking control of the loose ball, Bernardo retreated. Secondly, nobody else stepped forward and, with apologies to penguins of all ilk, Gary Medel waddled forward and sprayed a pass out to his left. The third mistake was Damonte was caught ball-watching and gesticulating for one his teammates to run forward for the loose ball. He wanted to torment Inter's Brazilian left back some more. This left Gabriel Silva, always more comfortable bombing forward than doing anything menial like defending, with acres of space.
The fourth mistake was, as everyone was sprinting toward our goalmouth in a panic, nobody bothered to mark anyone. The fifth mistake was Dedryck Boyata could have at least tried to go for the ball before it got to the near post.
So I covered my face with my hands as Zaza smashed his volley in from less than one meter.
1-1
Then the Nerazzurri went for the jugular and tried to put us down for good. We defended desperately and Dejan saved us with three fine saves.
In 24th minute, we finally got the ball out of our end and into the Inter half. Gaël Kakuta won a throw halfway down the left line. Morleo threw it back upfield to Pasa who spanked the ball into the space which opened up as Gaël ran inside. Morleo corraled the pass and instead of crossing to Damonte at the back post, passed inside to Russotto who wandered over.
Andrea spun and sprinted inside across the box with the ball at his feet. He sliced past both Andrea Ranocchia and Nemanja Vidic (this season's best defenders by far) and blazed a shot toward the far upper corner. Against nearly every other keeper in Italy, we might have had a lead. But not against Handanovic. He dove and snared it. Even made it look easier than it probably was.
Then both teams settled into a rhythm of trading chances. And by trading I mean that Inter would get three and we would get one. This is how it works in Italy. Juventus, both Milan clubs, Roma or Lazio (depending who is on the upswing at the moment) are just
supposed to get all the chances. The only reason the score was tied was because Dejan stood tall (he can't help that part, 192cm) and would let nothing past him.
At halftime, I talked about not panicking when we got the ball and hoofing it anywhere but that we should stay alert and know where our options are. I praised everyone for playing great, desperate defense against a very hot team.
"But, Enrico, we suck out there," Boyata said in barely passable Italian. But at least he was trying. "Only Dejan stop them."
Both he and Bernardo were having none of me praising the defense. Bernardo was nodding in agreement with his defensive partner.
"Yes, you're right, Dejan held the line," I replied to Boyata in English. "So pick up your game. Prove we deserve to be in it."
"Everyone else," I said in Italian. "He's right. Dejan kept us in the game. Let's go out and prove we belong in this game."
So we left the dressing room in pretty good spirits. But that ended quickly. Bernardo got a second yellow card for a silly, useless and stupid foul inside the center circle. He had Zaza under control, the striker was facing his own goal. There was no need to kick at his ankles.
46:23 and we're down to ten men. F***burgers and S***biscuits!
I was counting on removing Kakuta and Russotto whenever they started looking knackered. I'd figured that was going to be somewhere between 60 and 70 minutes. Now, our most realistic chance of winning was via penalties. In other words, we'd need to hold off Serie A's top offense for 75 minutes.
So Pasa moved back into central defense. Vacca and Leonardo Guerra became defensive midfielders. We'd let them have the middle, we'd play up the flanks. I pulled of Kakuta and replaced him with Modibo Tounkara.
It took a few minutes for Inter to figure out how to break us down. Dejan had to make three successive saves on Icardi shots at 54, 57 and 60 minutes including an instinctive block of a volley from inside 5 meters.
Finally, in the 65th we managed to get the ball into the Nerazzurri box. Leonardo Guerra, Damonte and Tounkara all took shots as the ball pinballed about. None got through.
Of course, Inter broke on the counter and for the umpteenth time, Dejan thwarted Icardi.
Vacca was clearly exhausted, so I took him off and put on David Monteleone in central defense. Pasa moved up into the defensive midfielder role alongside Guerra.
In the 71st minute, I grudgingly took off Russotto. He'd run himself into the ground and I needed him Saturday against Roma. So on went Pierluigi Cappelluzzo.
Then the Nerazzurri seemed to stall out. We couldn't threaten their goal, but they couldn't create any decent chances. It seemed to me that they were hunting an injured prey waiting for extra time to pounce.
And they didn't have any real chances. Zaza headed wide in the 79th minute from a free kick and Dejan tipped a Hernanes long-range blast over the bar.
I was hoping for a free kick in the Inter half as the seconds ticked down towards 90 minutes, but the Nerazzurri were playing carefully. Then at 89:30, Damonte drove down the right side, made Gabriel Silva look foolish yet again and cut inside. Seeing his options limited, he passed back to Pasa. Pasa saw the whole pitch and saw that Gyorgy Garics was sprinting up our right flank. So he lofted a pass into the right corner. Garics controlled the pass and crossed.
Tounkara ran right past the ball. What. The. ****?
Of course, Inter broke on the counter. Dejan tipped yet another Icardi shot wide to save us.
Every Nerazzurri player piled forward. The fourth thousand away fans all screamed their support at the top of their lungs.
Matia Fernandez curled in a poor cross to the near post. But Pasa mishit his clearance. It went right to Crisetig who smashed a shot goalward. It ricocheted of any number of people and landed at Ranocchia's feet.
1-2
Even he wasn't going to miss from 2 meters.
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Doing well, keep it up!