European football is back at the Meazza but most definitely not with a bang as Hapoel Be’er Sheva saw off Inter 2-0 in a historic victory for themselves and Israeli football overall.
An extremely changed squad to the one that saw off Pescara at the weekend were in trouble early on as Maranhao – who was absolutely superb throughout until his substitution late in the game – headed just wide. Hapoel weren’t wasting any time in showing they weren’t going to be pushovers. Inter on the other hand looked more like they were going to be pushed over by the relative minnows and come full time, that would just be exactly what happened.
Inter were down right wasteful all round and had they went into the dressing room at half time down a goal or even two, it wouldn’t have been the least bit surprising. The visitors, albeit not with the majority of possession provided more scares than Inter did and probably felt hard done by by the fact they weren’t ahead.
Palacio and Medel hit the deck like a tonne of bricks after small tussles with opposition, quite literally creating a domino effect as Inter too would fall [behind] seconds later as Maranhao sent a tasty ball across goal and Vitor was left with the easy task of passing in from yards out. You’d think being a goal down would create some urgency from the team but it was not to be and Inter carried on with a performance akin to amateur football.
Things only got worse for Inter and deservedly so with 20 minutes to go, Nagatomo made a stupid lunge and gave away a free kick on the edge of the box. Buzaglo left Handanovic with no chance with a fine effort. While Hapoel continued to make history for themselves, Inter continued to knock theirs.
We deserved all we got on the night and credit has to be given to Hapoel, who were deserved winners. The Israeli outfit were written off and ultimately underestimated, but as we’ve now learnt how wrong it was to do that. Nobody turned up or looked the slightest bit bothered and we paid for it, regardless of FFP squad restrictions in place or who we’re playing next.
One really has to question when the pressure will be on Frank de Boer, if not already.
