For the past couple of weeks SempreInter.com’s new editorialist, Richard Hall, has taken a look back at the glorious history of Inter by highlighting a certain match, hero or any other event in Inter’s history worthy of being labelled Nerazzurri Classic’s. Ahead of Sunday’s away fixture against Napoli, Richard looks back at a fixture between the two teams which saw Inter come away with a rare but classic win.
The 1992/93 season saw Inter mount a serious challenge to the title and it only fell at the final hurdle. Coached by Osvaldo Bagnoli, the Nerazzurri produced some memorable football this season and humbled some big opponents.
In the pre-season there had been some substantial changes in the playing staff as the legendary trio of German superstars revered so much by the fans had left. Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthäus and Jürgen Klinsmann had returned to their native domestic league and in times when you could only field three foreigners, Ruben Sosa, Darko Pancev and Igor Shalimov replaced them. Matthias Sammer was the fourth overseas player and it was with these special talents of the day coupled with the likes of Walter Zenga, Giuseppe Bergomi, Nicola Berti, Davide Fotolan and Salvatore Schillaci that Inter faced the season.
The Nerazzurri went to the San Paolo to face Napoli with an opening day defeat to Udinese and a win against Cagliari behind them. The Neapolitans on the other hand had drawn with Brescia 0-0 and had beaten Foggia 2-4 with Daniel Fonseca, Careca and Gianfranco Zola all finding the net. This was not going to be an easy task. The first half produced little in action but saw Napoli look the better of the two sides producing corner after corner and it seemed as though Inter were in trouble. After making it to half time at 0-0 the Milanese seemed to come out in the second half with more impetuous and it was this cavalier approach that seemed to start working.
On 54 minutes Alessandro Bianchi’s sweeping cross found Ruben Sosa in the box but as he went to connect he was bundled of the ball by a Napoli defender, a clear foul. This did not matter as Sammer, who had made a long run through the middle, connected with the loose ball on the penalty spot and lashed home a half volley passed a static Giovanni Galli.
Napoli kicked off but before they had time to take stock of their position they found themselves in trouble almost immediately. Caught on the offensive Inter won the ball and counter attacked with deadly precision, Sosa and Schillaci combined brilliantly with one long range one-two after another. The Napoli defence tried to regroup on the edge of their box but when the ball went back to Shalimov they were in disarray. From there the ball would end up out to the unmarked Schillaci who drove the ball home with power.
Napoli were not going to lie down and with six minutes to go they got one back. A corner found an unmarked Fonseca who headed well past Zenga but it was too little too late.
Inter went on to finish second in the league just two points behind the leaders AC Milan, Napoli’s season went from bad to worse after this and they finished a disappointing 11th.
