Today our beloved team traveled to Genoa to play against U.C Sampdoria at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris. A game that no Inter supporter had the nerve to predict. A game that we really had to win to compensate our earlier results in the Serie A. Of course I mean the games against Bologna and Juventus which we sadly lost.
Referee Luca Banti blew his pipe as the game kicked off 18:30. As a whole the game started easily with both teams just warmed up rolling the ball around with some offensive plays. Kovacic and Cassano were awesome early in the game, we saw Kovacic running all the way home to our cornerflag saving the ball from going out of play. Seconds later Cassano got possession of the ball and with pure magic he found Jonathan running down the right wing but all in vain. Minutes later Jonathan receives another wonderful pass but instead of crossing it into the penalty-area he falls to the ground as if he was struck with a sudden case of migraine. We as fans get really disappointed since these types of mistakes often happens to Jonathan. A couple of minutes later Jonathan gets a pass towards him when defending close to our goal, he falls , gets up and falls again so the ball goes out of play. I think all of us smiled when he got subbed out early in the second half.
Sampdoria tried to attack through out the first half of the game and at one sequence they got close to our penalty box, but Gargano showed up and clipped Sansones legs in the last second. The game got a bit boring after ten minutes played but Cassano showed his greatness with a pass over the whole Sampdoria defense trying to reach Palacio, but the argentinian attacker ran offside. I got really disappointed because of Guarin today, he lost the ball in places where we could’ve get punished against better opponents, but we didn’t. He seemed out of balance and seriously unfocused.
Later in the game we saw a really great performances from our goalkeeper Handanovic who always was positioned correctly in the goal, he absorbed everything and proved what a big player he is. I also have to give it to Juan who was a real beast in the defense today, he tore down everything in his way, demolishing everything that wasn’t part of his crew. In the late stages of the first half Sampdoria put pressure on us trying to score but instead Pereira found Palacio close to the Sampdoria goal. Because of the fine cross from Pereira, Palacio could easily score a header.
The second half started and it continued in the same pace as if it never was a fifteen minute brake, Cassano continued to cross beautiful passes to Palacio but our fantastic duo didn’t get it their way. Sampdoria threatened a little bit every there and then but they didn’t succeed. I have to give it to our young talent Mateo Kovacic who played a magnificent game today. He pulled the strings of the midfield, in the way of speed and direction. He showed such maturity in his acts and decicions. I simply love him!
Back to the game, Stramaccioni discovers that Jonathan can’t hang in there so he makes a sub trading him for Silvestre who actually played his part the right way. As the pressure from Sampdoria increases Strama also takes Cassano out and substitutes him for Kuzmanovic to fill the hole in the middle. All good tactical changes also has their downsides and in this case it resulted in a much faster pace in the game. Like crazy, both teams acted warriors and champions.
As we all feared Sampdoria to score an late equalizer Palacio showed up, running past three Sampdoria defenders, he only had the goalkeeper left. He slotted the second goal past the Sampdoria goalkeeper and finished it all. Two goals for the argentinian player and a positive game from the rest of the team if you close your eyes for Guarin and Jonathan’s performances.
