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 Sunday’s away fixture against Chievo, Richard looks back at a fixture between the two teams where “El Chino” Recoba demonstrated his greatness.
The 2003/04 season for Inter is perhaps best remembered for overcoming adversity. In a season that promised much the black and blue half of the city tried their best to spontaneously combust a number of times, leaving their team in disarray. Despite this they finished a credible fourth in Serie A, reaching the Semi-finals of the Coppa Italia whilst having an average European adventure. The only consistency this year was a desire to change for changes sake. A much larger digital parchment than this could be penned about the reasons for three Coaches coming in, as well as two Presidents. Hector Cuper was replaced by Corrado Verdelli who was replaced by Alberto Zaccheroni. In the board room Massimo Moratti handed over his power to Giacinto Facchetti.
Despite this Inter still had a squad that boasted some exquisite talent with Francesco Toldo, Javier Zanetti, Adriano, Dejan Stankovic, Alvaro Recoba and Christain Vieri in their ranks. Admittedly there was some dead wood but this was easily outweighed by the former. It was amongst this back drop that Inter started the season in somewhat unconvincing fashion. Victories against Modena and Siena were followed up with draws against Siena and Sampdoria. Next came a disappointing Derby defeat before draws at Brescia and Roma. Inter needed a win.
Travelling to the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi it was perhaps not unreasonable to concede Inter were nervous. Chievo had not been promoted for a great deal of time but already had a memorable line up including players like Amauri, Franco Semioli, Simone Perotta and Sergio Pellissier. They were also scoring and had more points than Inter at this stage. The game kicked off surprisingly however with both teams putting nine players behind the ball and the match was constantly ‘beige’. For the entire first half Inter looked like once again they would be picking up another draw against a team they should be beating. As the game rounded the 60 minute mark Inter looked for a spark, someone who could unlock this torrid game and they found him.
Recoba was one of the few showing any creativity and on 64 minutes he made his mark. From 40 yards out he received the ball and frustrated by Inter’s inability to find the channels, he looked up and pulled off a delectable cross that found Vieri in the Veronese box. The large target man did not need to be asked twice and rose above all comers in thought and deed to head the ball past a static Luca Marchegiani. The celebrations were muted from Vieri; he was frustrated, almost to the point of angry. His team mates tried to get a reaction but failed. All the same it was 0-1. The second goal for Inter followed only minutes after and this time Vieri became the provider. He found the ball on the right wing and crossed into the box in a hopeful manner. The ball eluded all in front of him but the determination and speed of thought of Recoba allowed him to slot home from close range.
It was unfair on Chievo, they had defended well earlier in the game but two lapses in concentration had let the Uruguayan create one and score the other. It is easy to focus on the now but sometimes looking back you become able to appreciate the immense qualities of players such as Recoba. By doing this simply allows us to qualify what our teams miss or deserve in the seasons going forward.
Follow Richard on Twitter @Gentleman_Ultra or on check out his blog https://thegentlemanultra.tumblr.com/
