For the past couple of month’s 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 tomorrow’s home fixture against Napoli, Richard looks back at a fixture between the two teams which saw Marco Branca emerge as a hero.
The 1973/74 campaign for Inter was not what they had been expecting. Even so it was of no consequence. The 1970’s were a grim period and despite a Scudetto win in 1971 there was little if nothing to shout about. A defeat to Ajax in the 1972 European Cup Final was the only highlight. The joy of reaching a European Final was quickly turned into dismay, as the Milanese populous of the blue and black persuasion were simply left mystified by Johan Cryuff and Ajax’s total football. This was not how Inter played their football it was not in Herrera’s crumbling legacy.
It was against this loveless back drop that the shambolic 1973/74 kicked off with little to look forward to. On the bench sat Coach Helenio Herrera but his reign would be brought short as a heart problem meant Aeneas Masiero would finish other year on the in charge. The team finished fourth in the league and were knocked out for the Coppa Italia in round two, whilst falling to Admira Wacker in the UEFA Cup.
The fans wanted something to cheer about, goals and excitement, they were not getting either. When they played Milan ‘away’ in March, the doom mongers were out in force to cast dispersions and to shake their fists. Inter were not getting terrible results but it was terrible football. The Catenaccio style was falling apart and when badly implemented, it is not pretty
Incredibly when they played Milan in the ‘away’ Derby all this changed. The size of the game captured the imagination of the players and from the first minute they bombarded their rivals. The break came early on when Gabriele Oriali opened the scoring with a thunderbolt from 25 yards that crashed into the top left hand corner. The bar had been set now and Inter pressed on. On the seventh minute Oriali tried again but this time his shot was deflected and ended up as an own goal for Joseph Sabadini after the low shot bounced off him and deceived Joseph Cafaro in the Milan goal.
The home side had been ambushed they were two goals down and unable to put two passes together. In a state of disarray they conceded a third two minutes later when Nevio Scala (the one and the same) crossed the ball for an unmarked Roberto Boninsegna to leap up and score a crashing header. Controversy ensued as Scalas ball had looked like it had already crossed the line. Milan did manage to gain some level of composure and looked to be seeing the half out; they even got conciliation thanks to Luciano Chiarugi and looked to be going in at 1-3. This was until a superlative goal fourth goal took the Rossoneri by surprise. Boninsegna got hold of the ball in the box, his back heel found the on rushing Mazzola who found the corner with a powerful strike. This wasn’t Catenaccio now; this was the sort of football they had seen from Ajax and Cryuff.
Inter did continue with the free flowing football in the second half and dominated but Milan defended better. The away side did get a fifth goal when a fine free kick was only parried into the path of Giorgio Mariani who wasn’t going to miss from that distance. The result was a highlight of a very adequate but disappointing season. The Nerazzurri had been recently used to so much more. Now with Coppa Italia exits and UEFA Cup qualification being the main success they were not even playing the best football. That was until the Derby, then they produced a master class. Now we look forward to the Derby in 2014, I wonder if anybody else can see the comparisons.
