Inter Milan played AC Milan in what is known to Italians as “Il derby della Madonnina”. Inter won in the last few minutes of the game with a dramatic penalty shot scored by none other than the man of the night Mauro Icardi. Mauro Icardi was on a goal drought before this game scoring only one penalty shot in his last four Serie A fixtures. By the looks of it, our captain looks more than in form and out of his slum by scoring a hat-trick versus city rivals during the biggest game of the year thus far. Before I begin this piece of Terzo Tempo by completely professing my love for Mauro Icardi, there are a few players who must be credited with today’s three points.
The first player that needs absolute praise is our shot stopper, Handanovic. Now all though he stumbled the ball and caused the second goal which could have easily been prevented, he did a lot to keep us in the game when we needed it most.For example, him saving that point blank shot with the incredible stretch of the left arm or Suso’s long shot. All very difficult saves to make but what made them even more important was when they were made. He also did a very good job in terms of switching the play to D’Ambrosio and Nagatomo always becoming an option in a triangle formation with any two defenders, a crucial piece to the building up from the back.
The next player who deserves his credit today was Antonio Candreva, Candreva played fantastic cutting into the middle and even ringing it off the bar in the first half. Candreva’s cuts in the middle forced Rodriguez to follow him so that he can’t take the clear shot. This allowed room for D’Ambrosio to really be almost alone a lot of the time. I think that these instructions were given to Candreva by Spalletti to really expose Milan’s three back formation and it clearly worked. How can I talk about Candreva and not mention the world class cross he delivered into the box to Icardi. World class performance from the Italian living up to his name by always playing well in a derby.
I think that with Brozovic injured, Spaletti found his replacement very well in Vecino. Vecino playing in that attacking midfielder role today looked very dangerous going up and even back tracking in his own zone to help the defence. Vecino shot when he had the lane, carried when he had to carry, turn when he had to turn, and most importantly distributed when he had to. A near perfect game from Vecino and he is one of the direct reasons for our success today leaving no breathing room for Kessie, Bonaventura and Biglia with the help of Gagliardini and Borja Valero.
Finally, the man of the night Mauro Icardi, the hat-trick hero. Today he was so successful because he was used. I’ve been saying it for weeks but in order for Icardi to be lethal he needs to be used to his strengths, he cannot dribble like Messi as I’ve said before he needs to be fed into the box from wide position and trust him enough to clean up. His first goal was scored in between two center-backs tucked into the corner, and the second one was a world class finish after he just stutters his run leaving him with just enough time to convert the cross off one touch. Most important thing to notice about Icardi is how creative he is off the ball make runs horizontally towards the first post, his stutter step runs, just world class.