Every week SempreInter.com editorialist, Richard Hall, takes 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 fixture against Napoli, Richard looks back to the 1997/98 season when Gianluca Pagliuca’s saves helped Inter clinch all 3 points.
The 1997/98 season was an infamous one for the Nerazzurri where they finished second in Serie A under Luigi Simoni. On match day six, Inter travelled to the San Paolo and were expecting to come away with all three points, the match developed into an exciting affair, with the away side having to rely heavily on their goalkeeper.
Inter went into the game in super form, four wins and a draw had seen them put down a marker for the season, especially considering that on top of this they had scored 15 goals in the process. Summer signing Ronaldo was making an impact and the future looked bright.
Unbeknown to Napoli, they were to be relegated from Serie A this year and were to go through four coaches in the process. They had won only one, drawn one and lost three in their opening five games and conceded 11 goals in these matches. When Inter came to town it looked like it would be a landslide defeat for Napoli.
The match was staged in a packed San Paolo with bright sunlight beating down. Napoli attacked first down the left but the cross was superbly picked out of the air by a diving Gianluca Pagliuca; this was a sign of things to come.
On ten minutes the first goal of the game arrived. Youri Djorkaeff delivered a super ball into the Neapolitan box which was headed, with power, straight at goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatela by Diego Simone. It was a good save from Taglialatela but the ball went straight up in the air, Simone managed to head the ball back across the face of the goal and Fabio Galante was in the right place at the right time to head in from two yards out.
After this Inter expected more but Napoli forged three good attacks in succession. The third saw veteran Giuseppe Giannini force a good tip over the bar from Pagliuca. Just before the break Massimiliano Esposito saw his shot tipped onto the post by Pagliuca again and the home side were showing a resilience not seen in earlier matches.
The second half started at a much more conservative pace although Pagliuca had to be on hand twice for two good saves. Not until the 69th minute did Inter have another attempt of any note. Frenchman Djorkaeff had a ball laid off to him from a free kick and from 25 yards out he hit the ball with the outside of his foot, this cruelly deflected off Francesco Turrini and went down as an own goal.
Napoli refused to crumble and pushed on again, Pagliuca was made to make a superb double save from Claudio Bellucci and then another late save from Igor Protti.
Inter managed to hold on and win the game 0-2 but their goalkeeper had been man of the match. It was rare that Inter played with such a lack of tempo in this season but when they did Pagliuca was literally there to save them.
Share your thoughts below or hit Richard up on Twitter: @Gentleman_Ultra