Coming off their fourth straight Scudetto win, Inter started the 2009-10 campaign in fantastic form. Going to into their round 13 match up at Stadio Renato Dall’Ara against Bologna, the Nerazzurri were flying with a record of nine wins, drawing two and losing just one game thus far. Scoring a plethora of goals for fun, Inter had managed to score thirty goals, while giving up just ten through the first twelve rounds.
Narrowly avoiding relegation by three points in the previous season, Bologna were off to an atrocious start. Losing six games through twelve rounds and managing only three wins, Rossoblu were desperate for an upset win at home versus the Nerazzurri to turn their season around. Franco Colomba had been in-charge as head coach for little over a month and managed two wins out of four games, had the team going in right direction again. To make things more interesting, prior to the game, Colomba was quoted as saying “I have often lost to the Nerazzurri, as is normal for a Coach of provincial clubs, but don’t forget my Reggina beat them and cost Marcelo Lippi his job!”
Led by Diego Milito and Mario Balotelli in attack, Jose Mourinho had Inter lined up with backline of Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Chivu. Midfield quartet of Zanetti, Cambiasso, Thiago Motta and Stankovic as the trequartista in a 4-3-1-2 formation.
The Rossoblu were also starting the game with same formation, led by previous season’s capocannoniere runner-up Marco Di Vaio, paired with Marcelo Zayaleta in attack, followed by Martins Adailton as a trequartista and Nicola Mingazzini, Francesco Valiani, Roberto Guana in midfield. Rounding up the backline were Andrea Raggi, Daniele Portanova, Miguel Britos and Salvatore Lanna with former Inter youth player and co-owned goal keeper Emiliano Viviano between the posts.
Inter came out firing on all cylinders, controlling possession from the start. Methodically attacking Bologna up the middle and crossing the ball into the box with overlapping runs from fullback positions. Viviano managed to keep the score level till 22nd minute mark when Inter finally made a breakthrough. Receiving the ball from a corner kick, Thiago Motta managed to direct the ball towards the far left-post where Lucio headed it down at Milito who smashed the ball into the net on the volley with his back towards the goal, giving Nerazzurri 1-0 lead!
Despite dominating most of the match thus far, Inter held the lead for only a minute. After the goal, when play resumed, Andrea Raggi found Zayaleta with a fantastic lobbed pass from the right back position, beating both Lucio and Samuel. With Julio Caesar closing him down quickly, Zayaleta side-stepped to create space towards his left and placed the ball perfectly in the top right-hand corner to bring the match back on level terms at 1-1.
Inter continued to apply pressure on Bologna and created plenty of chances with both Mario Balotelli and Dejan Stankovic coming close to adding a second goal for Nerazzurri. With the Rossoblu defending well and Viviano putting in a strong performance, set-pieces played an important role in the match. With Balotelli scoring Inter’s second goal also from a corner-kick, Nerazzurri went into half-time with a well-deserved 2-1 lead.
When play resumed in second half, Inter continued to dictate the tempo of the game. Fifty-seven mins into the match, one of Maicon’s run forward found Milito inside the penalty box. He created some space towards his left and smashed the ball towards top right-hand corner of goal but Viviano managed a quick reflex save to parry it away.
Minutes later Inter were back on the scoreboard with their third goal of the game following a brilliant sequence on the right flank by Cambiasso. After winning the ball, thwarting a Bologna attack, Cuchu played a long ball over the top to Milito. Seeing him make the run towards the penalty area, Milito held off two defenders toward the right corner post and crossed the ball towards the center, where Cambiasso met the ball and placed in in bottom right corner of the goal, leaving Viviano rooted to the spot. Despite a solid performance, and securing an important win away at Bologna, game ended on a sour note as Maicon was shown straight red card for arguing a decision by the referee.
