Every week SempreInter.com editorialist, Bilal Mirza, 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 a Nerazzurri Classic. Ahead of Sunday’s season opener away against Sassuolo, Bilal looks back to the first encounter between these two teams when Walter Mazzarri’s Inter completely destroyed the newcomers.
In the 2012-13 season, Sassuolo won promotion to Serie A for the first time in their history, under the guidance of then manager, Eusebio Di Francesco. Their debut season on the biggest stage in Italian football was a tough one, finishing 17th and barely avoiding relegation. Starting the season with three losses in a row, they were under a lot of pressure when the Nerazzurri came to town to face them for the first time ever.
Inter had started the 2013-14 season well, after appointing Walter Mazzarri as the head coach, taking over from Andrea Stramaccioni after a 9th place finish the year before. Going into the game at Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia, Inter were certainly the more confident of the two teams, winning two games and tying the Derby D’Italia at home against Juventus the week before. The Inter backline was looking solid after the addition of Hugo Campagnaro, playing the right side of the center back trio along with Andrea Ranocchia and Juan Jesus, conceding only one goal going into 4th game of the season.
Mazzarri had Inter lined up in a 3-5-1-1 formation with the aforementioned backline, with Nagatomo & Jonathan taking up the wingback positions alongside Guarin, Cambaisso & Taider in midfield. In the attack, Rodrigo Palacio was the lone striker with Ricky Alvarez behind him as the trequartista.
Despite the rocky start to their season, the home crowd was fully behind their team at kickoff. However, Sassuolo looked nervous from the start, as Inter took control of the game and applied pressure. With their pacey wingbacks, Inter attacked the Neroverdi on the flanks and got their reward 7 minutes into the match. Juan Jesus found Yuto Nagatomo on a well-timed run on the left wing beating the defender using his speed. Finding himself in acres of space, he put in an uncontested cross to the far right post of the goal, where Palacio met the ball and placed it in the bottom right corner, giving Inter the early 0-1 lead.
After conceding an early goal, Sassuolo came out of the blocks and methodically started attacking the Nerazzurri on the wings and pushing up the middle occasionally. With the leadership and guidance of Cambiasso in the midfield, Inter defended well and calmly dealt with occasional attempts on goal by the Neroverdi. The game slowed down a bit, until Juan Jesus made a Lucio-esque run forward, through the middle, causing panic in Sassuolo defense and forcing Francesco Acerbi to step up and defend.
In doing so, Acerbi left Palacio wide open at the edge of the box and this time Juan Jesus found him with a perfectly placed ball inside the box. Palacio, struck the ball towards the far left post and it ricocheted off goal keeper Alberto Pomini’s hand up into the air behind him. This allowed Taider to receive the ball uncontested and score his first goal for the Nerazzurri, giving the team a comfortable 2-0 lead. To make matters worse for the home side, first half substitute Raffaele Pucino (who replaced starting centerback Marcello Gazzola), scored a bizarre own goal after he collided with Saphir Taider and headed the ball into his own net. Half-time granted the Neroverdi a much needed break, after a disastrous first half for their defense.
When play resumed, the Nerazzurri were hungry for more. Sassuolo maintained possession earlier on in second half, attacking the Nerazzurri defense from the wings and regularly crossing it to the middle. At the 53 minute mark, Taider intercepted the ball in the midfield, and played a piercing through ball towards the right wing where he found Alvarez making the run forward, waiting for Palacio to make his run at the defense.
Using his pace yet again, Palacio created space between himself and Pucino, which allowed him to take a shot on target that was parried away by the keeper. However, Palacio’s run had also pulled Acerbi out of position, which allowed Alvarez to gather the rebound and score to put Nerazzurri up by 4 goals. After scoring his 2nd goal of the game, Palacio made way for El Principe’s return to the field for the first time since suffering a serious knee injury the previous season against Romanian Club CFR Cluj. Milito wasted no time getting off the mark, as Ricky Alvarez shed his defender with a beautiful drag-back inside the penalty box, and sent a dangerous low cross into a crowded penalty area. Always the master of getting into the right spaces, Milito was there to score an easy tap-in for Inter’s 5th goal of the match, resulting in a standing ovation from the Inter contingent at Mapei Stadium, led by Massimo Moratti himself.
Completely demoralized and hoping for the referee to blow the full-time whistle already, Sassuolo defense was shattered and the confidence non-existent as the play resumed with the Curva Nord making their presence known and singing and chanting the Nerazzurri anthems. Inter, backed by their traveling fans, continued their dominance and controlled rest of the game with ease. Milito ended the game with a brace and Cambiasso also chipped in with an exquisite left footed shot from outside the box into the top left corner of the goal, leaving no chance for Pomini to save himself from 7th embarrassment of the match.
The game ended with an unforgettable 0-7 away win for the Nerazzurri. The club would go on and finish the season in 5th place with a record of 15 wins, 15 draws and 8 losses, enough to grant them entry into the Europa League the following season. This was also the last season for club legends Diego Milito, Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Walter Samuel. This season also marked the end of a very successful era in Inter’s history, highlighted by the historic Treble in 2010, as Massimo Moratti sold the majority of the club to Erick Thohir towards the end of the season.
