Welcome to your ‘one stop shop’ for everything you need to know on the day following any Inter game. Grab a coffee, sit back and enjoy the very best (and worst) of Inter 3 Parma 3.
Tale of the tape….. Courtesy of the statistics site Whoscored.com – here are the numbers that mattered from Sunday nights game.
The Good…….
Yuto Nagatomo has now scored four goals in Serie A. This is more than any other defender in the league. The Japanese international had three shots (all on target) and completed three successful dribbles during the game.
Inter once again had a higher pass success rate than their opposition. 80%.
The Nerazzurri had the advantage with ball possession (56%) and in the air, where they won 58% of the aerial duels.
Walter Mazzarri’s side had six corners to Napoli’s five.
Five of Inter’s 11 shots managed to hit the target.
Ricky Alvarez lead the team with four key passes.
Rolando completed 94% of his 50 passes.
Esteban Cambiasso made a team leading five interceptions.
The Bad………
Napoli registered 13 shots of which nine were on target. This the most Rafa Benitez’s side have managed all season.
When Gonzalo Higuain scores, Napoli win. This was the sixth occasion that has happened this season.
Yuto Nagatomo completed just 61% of his passes which was not helped by the disastrous header which lead directly to Napoli’s opening goal.
Fredy Guarin completed zero dribbles and just 75% of his passes which made him largely ineffective.
All three of Rodrigo Palacio’s shots on goal were off target.
Inter have now conceded 21 league goals. They have also given up 11 goals in their last five games in all competitions.
The Ugly……..
Ricky Alvarez will now miss the Milan derby after an incredibly harsh second yellow card for deliberate handball resulted in a sending off for Inter’s key midfielder.
Player ratings courtesy of Gazzetta dello Sport
What the gaffer had to say…….
Speaking to Sky Sports: “Today I paid compliments to my players, I’m proud of them. We have to work harder in retaining possession and how we build up the play. We put Napoli in difficulties all the time, we imposed our game upon them and they could only counter-attack us but with high quality. We didn’t pay attention to covering up spaces but we had the will to play well however we miss too many chances, but if we always play like this we won’t be loosing many matches. The sending off? It was a series of wrong decisions which decided the match when we were at our best. Alvarez first booking was non-existent, he trips, that’s all. This episode hurt us a lot. Probably we’re very unlucky with him, he was also in charge fo the match against Roma. Today he got many decisions wrong, there were a couple of hand-ball situations involving Albiol and Mertens. Whenever the situation is reversed we never get any penalties with us.”
Esteban Cambiasso gave his reaction to Inter Channel and discussed the officiating: “I don’t know what I said, I have a hard time understanding why he did what he did, not what he said. Unfortunately it seems that as soon as he sees us he’s unlucky, because I remember Inter – Juve, the handcuff-gesture, Inter – Roma, today’s match. I have this feeling that whenever he is to officiate us he’s always unlucky. The penalty on Palacio? It’s pointless for us to even practise on penalties. Even if three players were to kick one of our players in the face we would still not get a penalty.”
President Erick Thohir gave his reaction to the match to Sky Sports: “The red card changed the game completely. Mistakes are a part of the game, but the sending-off was made without any good reason and it had a great impact on the match. Napoli however deserve praise, they played well”.
Napoli head coach Rafa Benitez talked to RAI after the win against Inter: “It is usually very hard to play right after being undeservedly knocked out of the Champions League. We played against a very strong team, something which probably helped us regain motivation. I have several good offensive players, our potential in attack is good. Was this game personal for me? No, I have a lot of good friends in the city of Milan. This was a game against a team that is behind is in the league and it was important to prolong the distance between us I want to transmit continuity and I have my project, we take it slow to go a long way. For me football doesn’t change every week, we do not only work on our defense but on our pressing of the opponent all over the pitch. Did I introduce a third midfielder in order to get us a goal? The intention was to give us more pressure in the middle of the pitch since Higuaín was having some difficulties. Then I wanted to exploit Callejóns speed and it worked out well. Nagatomo’s goal? We shouldn’t have had two players marking the same opponent, the back four should have done that part better, a winger should never be able to get that much space”.
Other notable tidbits……..
Mauro Icardi made his return from injury with a brief substitute appearance.
Samir Handanovic continued his fine statistical record by saving a Goran Pandev penalty kick in injury time.
Walter Mazzarri only used two of his permitted three substitutions.
Juan Jesus was left out of the team, he seemingly paid the penalty for Inter’s poor defensive display against Parma.
Massimo Moratti moved swiftly to quash rumours of friction between him and the new president.
Don’t forget to complete your post match experience by casting your Man of the Match vote. The result will be announced exclusively on the latest episode of StudioInter: The only 100% Inter podcast in English!
