Inter played Tottenham at home in their first Champions League game in nearly seven years. Leading up to this game Spalletti was forced to make a decision which saw him exclude Gagliardini from the Champions League Roster. This bold decision was followed by the unfortunate injury which saw D’Ambrosio injured for todays fixture, this left Spalletti in another predicament in regards to who will fulfil the right back position. This forced Spalletti to line up the back line in a way no one has seen before.
The back line consisted of Asamoah on the left, Miranda and De Vrij in the middle and oddly enough Skriniar as the right back. What this approach is designed to do is basically solidify the back line. With Skriniar on that right hand side you lose a bit of fire power going forward but you basically shut down nearly any possibility of a counter attack. Besides the lucky bounce that led to the away teams goal most of the shots Handanovic was forced to save were fairly straight forward which is really all you can ask for from a defence playing against such a talented team such as Tottenham.
In the midfield it started off as Brozovic and Vecino with Nainggolan in the number ten position and Perisic outside his left and Politano outside his right. This game, without a doubt, was won by Marcelo Brozovic, and his ability to absolutely destroy, recuperate and re-distribute in the midfield. The balance was only improved by the minute throughout the game because it consisted of Vecino running hard to press, tracking down dead balls and winning the crucial challenges which led to his distribution to Brozovic who was able to dictate pace and call the shots which allowed him to control the entire game. As each minute went by the two linked up more and more helped develop a sense of fluidity in the game.
With regards to that line of three, all four wingers were shut down completely forcing Inter to play through the middle. Already the right side had very little fire power because Skriniar isn’t a natural right back which forced Inter to rely heavily on Asamoah and Perisic. This resulted in Tottenham over loading Inter’s left side to essentially shut down the wings. Even though Tottenham attempted to cut Icardi’s supply from out wide, Icardi did excellently to convert on such a bizarre cross that looked like it was going to no mans land. Inter did fantastic to catch onto that and began playing through the middle which saw Icardi come slightly closer to Nainggolan and try and include himself more into the play and thats when Tottenham was caught to spread out which allowed Inter to dictate the game.
In conclusion this may have been the first game of the season where Inter’s personality truly flourished being able to come up from losing 1-0 to win the game in the 92nd minute. This may be a crucial victory in turning around the Serie A season as well but most importantly I’m sure it brought great satisfaction to the Inter community to see Inter re-enter the Champions League with a win.
