The Nerazzurri welcomed relegation-fighting Cesena to the Meazza today in what was an absolute must win for Mancini’s men. Inter were coming off a draw to Napoli and a loss to Wolfsburg in the Europa League. In both matches the Nerazzurri looked timid for most of the match with only flashes of style in between stretches of insecurity. Their rivals Cesena were coming off a hard fought win against Udinese in the league. With Juan suspended the back line consisted of Danilo, Ranocchia, Andreolli and Dodo took over for Santon, who was likely rested after many consecutive starts since joining in January. In the midfield Kuz stepped in for Brozovic and Palacio kept his spot up front over the out of form Podolski.
This match started with Inter taking the initiative and consistently bringing the ball to Cesena’s goal. Moreover, the Nerazzurri had most of the possession and were cycling the ball around without a large degree of difficulty. However, the possession was not leading to many clear scoring chances. Cesena was laying back and was clearly satisfied with (barely) countering, but the quality of the crossing and final ball from Inter was quite low. At the 25-minute mark Shaqiri seemed to pick up an injury and was quickly replaced with Kovacic. This was a great opportunity for Mateo to step on the gas and put some pressure on Mancini to give him a run of starts.
With what must have been their first attempt on goal Cesena went up 1-0 as Danilo and Ranocchia were left chasing the Cesena player, who waltzed past them and chipped the rushing Handanovic. Guarin almost answered soon after but had a left foot curled ricochet off the post. As Inter have done many times this season, they began to give up more and more space to Cesena after the goal and looked incredibly sluggish attacking. The urgency slowly left the attacking play and Inter went into half time looking lazy and slow. The passing was awful and we didn’t even provide Italy’s top scorer with a single decent ball.
After the break Mancini immediately added Podolski for the lackluster Kuzmanovic and things began to turn around with a flurry of chances once we switched to the 4-3-3. Right away an incredible Icardi overhead kick was incorrectly ruled offside, but Palacio made it 1-1 after a pass from Maurito himself. That was Rodrigol’s 6th in 7 matches for those keeping track. Within minutes of this Inter should have been given a penalty when Dodo was taken down in the box but no call was given. To round it off Podolski hit a classic left boot strike off the post and the keeper held on to the follow-up.
Inter were beginning to take the initiative of the match and were really taking it to Cesena and I know Santon needs a rest I was happy to see him come on for Dodo. Notably, this was the first time in a long time that Inter fielded an all-Italian back line. Inter continued to create flurries of chances in the Cesena box; however, they did not lead to goals and goals are what determine the result.
This match ended with a 1-1- score line and provided another example of the Nerazzurri playing down to their opponent. Cesena is by no means a quality side and did little to deserve any points tonight. However, Inter spent the first half walking and were not awoken from their sleep until they were already behind in the match. Possession is one thing but there is a lot hidden in the possession percentage. One of those things is what the team actually does with the ball. Tonight Inter simply did not do enough with the ball to deserve a victory. It must be said that the 4-3-3 that Mancini deployed in the second half seemed much more effective going forward than the 4-3-1-2.
Individually, Gary Medel had a hell of a game and was all over the pitch tonight covering up for his midfield teammates on the counter attack. Moreover, Palacio ran a ton for the team and is one of the few players on the pitch tonight who should not be doing some serious reflecting about their effort levels. Lastly, Mateo had a chance to convince Mancini with a strong performance against a weak team tonight but with exception of a few vintage Kovacic runs, he was quiet. Mateo is certainly suffering from a lack of confidence these days. Three points were a must tonight and we didn’t get them. If we can’t pick up three points at home to Cesena I’m not sure from where they are going to arrive.
