Azerbaijani team Qarabag travelled the Meazza in order to meet Inter in a midweek Europa League clash. This game came off the back of a horror performance against Cagliari last weekend. Both the squad and the coach seem to be under pressure to not struggle against this Qarabag side, while keeping in mind the big game against Fiorentina on Sunday. Many speculated whether we would see the likes of Bonazzoli, Obi, Krhin and Mbaye but this was not the case. Notable changes to the team saw Handanovic rested and Kuzmanovic starting after a stretch of games on the bench.
As we have witnessed many times this season Inter began this game slowly and with some sloppy passing. Qarabag were the team taking the initiative and managed the first shot. Inter came under a bit of pressure but Juan bailed the team out by blocking a shot in a dangerous area. Inter took the lead against the run of play with a curling shot from D’Ambrosio. The shot was deflected but D’Ambrosio did well to hit the ball with pace while keeping it on net. The ball can’t deflect into the goal if it’s fired a mile above the net.
After the goal Inter began to pick up the tempo but continued to have trouble connecting passes in the Qarabag end and the crosses from the wing were not good enough. Icardi continued to make runs but the lack of service left the player isolated. Without a second striker on the pitch the assassin that is Icardi often ends up expelling his energy chasing down poor passes, especially without Kovacic to set him up.
Inter began the second half a bit tentatively and were looking very cautious in their approach. There was a succession of corner kicks but the quality of the ball into the box was lacking.
At this point Mazzarri began making changes bringing on Medel and Osvaldo for Kuzmanovic and Guarin. Adding a second striker on the pitch immediately caused Inter to look more dangerous in attack and the movement at the front was much better. Soon after this, Hernanes went down with what originally looked like cramping; however he was stretchered off. The severity of this injury will be concerning to Inter. Icardi also went down with what looked like a cramp but shook it off and scored a great strikers goal from a tough angle. The addition of Joel Obi added some pace and positivity to the Nerazzurri but he did not have much time to make his mark. Inter managed to keep Qarabag from doing much of anything and the game ended 2-0.
There are a few things that you can take away from this game. The first is something I feel like I have repeated a million times. When we play with a lone striker, that striker is VERY isolated. The movement in the final third is impaired without a second striker. This makes it hard to understand why some of our young Primavera strikers, who are scoring like mad, are not even getting called up to these matches. Inter is a better team with two strikers. Secondly, the quality of balls coming in from the wings are really lacking. Sometimes it looks like the wingers just huff the ball into the box to get rid of it. With guys like Icardi and Osvaldo in the box, who know how to put the ball into the net, you need to be putting the ball on their heads. It was not glamorous but I will take the 3 points.