Walter Mazzarri’s Inter travelled down to Sicily to play one of the most difficult away fixtures in the Serie A calendar against a Catania who narrowly lost away to Fiorentina last week and who finished last seasons Serie A campaign ahead of Inter. Tonight though, there was no sign of the Sicilians superiority as Mazzarri tactically outclassed Rolando Maran, as Inter recorded the clubs biggest away win against Catania in the Serie A (the biggest Inter-win away of all time against Catania is the 1-4 victory in the 86/87 Coppa Italia), with Ricky Alvarez scoring a beauty to round off a convincing 3-0 win for the visitors.
The season is only 2 fixtures old and already we can see Mazzarri’s Inter taking shape. Although the team wasn’t as solid in defence tonight as they were last week against Genoa, Catania hardly managed to test Handanovic. Instead, Jonathan, who is enjoying his best spell since joining the club, ran rampant on the right wing time after time and eventually assisted Rodrigo Palacio for the first goal of the night. Jonathan’s performances so far this season has the Inter-faithful reminiscing of Maicon and it seems that the Brazilian is really flourishing under Mazzarri and his 3-5-2 system. If Jonathan is flourishing under Mazzarri, what can be said of Yuto Nagotomo other than that the Japanese international is playing as if under a spell at the minute. Sure, Nagotomo wasn’t faultless and he made a few mistakes but he wasn’t far from being faultless as his tireless running up and down the left flank in defence as well as in attack was a joy to behold, and which ultimately led to Inter’s second goal of the night and his second goal of the season when he dove on to a cross from Palacio like a kamikaze-pilot and headed the ball past Andujar.
Several critics have raised voices that all Mazzari asked for when joining the club was a winger and that such a player hasn’t arrived yet but with Jonathan and Nagatomo playing as they are, no reinforcements in this area is needed. Far from it, because behind these two, Brazilian youngster Wallace gave an impressive performance when subbed on for Jonathan. Who knows, maybe Pereira might be inspired by the previously heavily criticized Jonathan and finally deliver the kind of performances which one would expect given his hefty 10 million Euro transfer fee last summer.
In the middle of the pitch, Cambiasso put in the kind of performance we have been spoiled with during the majority of his tenure at the club, the Argentinian holding midfielder hardly put a foot wrong and won pretty much every single loose ball as he hunted Catania’s mid-fielders like a savage rabid dog with rabies. Guarin was Guarin, meaning he is still Inter’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in that he mixes moments of pure brilliance with actions that have you wondering if he’s ever played at this level before. A reassuring thought however, is that he is performing more often like Dr. Jekyll than we’ve been used too, but this wasn’t enough for Mazzarri who according to unconfirmed reports took him off as he wasn’t pleased with the Colombian internationals overall performance. Our favourite schizophrenic patient aside, the only other negative aspect of tonight’s fixture was Mateo Kovacic’s injury which forced Mazzarri to bring the young Croatian midfielder off 3 minutes before half-time with a reported back injury.
Up front Palacio and Ricky Alvarez ran and ran and then ran some more, making life very difficult for the Catania players when trying to create something going forward. The former’s goal was, as mentioned above, thanks to Jonathan’s brilliance whilst the latter’s goal was nothing short of brilliant as he demonstrated why he’s been likened to Kaká during his glory days.
Maximum points after two fixtures, 5 goals scored and none conceded. After the international break, Inter will face Juventus at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in San Siro and if Mazzarri’s team can get a result there, then maybe we can start to seriously pose the question if this the dawn of a new Grande Inter?
