On the 17th of October 2009, the Nerazzurri traveled to Stadio Luigi Ferraris to take on Genoa on their road to ehat ended in treble glory. Inter were off to a flying start that season with a series of comfortable wins including a memorable 4-0 derby win against the Rossoneri.
However, with the only loss of the season coming at the same venue against Sampdoria few weeks before the Genoa game, the team was primed for a dominating performance!
After struggling to replace world-class striker in Diego Milito, Genoa had re-established themselves with the additions of former Inter striker, Hernan Crespo and Rodrigo Palacio. The Rossoblu had an unpredictable start to their season, beating the likes of Roma, Napoli with comfortable margins, securing a draw at home against Juventus and yet struggling against mid-table sides Chievo Verona and Udinese. With the reigning champions coming to town, Gasperini’s men were hoping to secure points at home and get their season back on track.
Despite their fine form in the league, Jose Mourinho’s side was without former Genoa striker Diego Milito and Samuel Eto’o due to injury and only available striker was Italian youngster Mario Balotelli. With a mid-week Champions League match against Dynamo Kiev coming up, the special one was hoping to rotate the squad to ensure players are fresh for the mid-week match and secure first win of the group stages.
However with star players such as Eto’o and Milito unavailable, his options were limited. He had the team line-up in a 4-3-2-1 formation with Balotelli as lead striker and Wesley Sneijder and Dejan Stankovic behind him. Midfield trio was Javier Zanetti, Estban Cambiasso, Sulley Muntari and defense of Maicon, Lucio, Sameul, Chivu with Julio Cesar in goal.
Gasperini had the home side lined up in his traditional 3-4-3 formation, with Marco Amelia in goal and defensive line of Giuseppe Biava, Emiliano Moretti, Salvatore Bocchetti. Midfielders were Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Omar Milanetto, Alberto Zapater, Francesco Modesto and attacking trio were Sergio Floccari, Raffaele Palladino and Giuseppe Sculli.
Just six minutes into the match, Inter took the early lead from a well taken set-piece from almost the half-way line as a Sneijder free-kick was headed to far right post for an unmarked Cambiasso. Cuchu smashed the shot on the volley, that despite taking a deflection from center-back Moretti, it went past Marco Amelia for the early 0-1 lead for visitors. The champions didn’t stop there, despite the early lead, Mourinho’s men continued pushing for the second, dominating possession and brilliance of Wesley Sneijder creating scoring opportunities for Balotelli.
Around the thirty minute mark, Zanetti’s brilliant tackle on Zapater led to a counter-attack opportunity with 3 vs 2 advantage. Sneijder, posing a threat to score from range himself, drew in the center-backs to leave wide open space for Balotelli at the edge of the box. He received a late pass from Sneijder and struck low driven shot the far-left post, leaving no chance for a diving Amelia to score his first goal of the season, 0-2 in favor of Inter.
The Nerazzurri continued their dominating first half and didn’t allow any room for Gasperini’s men to draw level. As game approached half-time Genoa won a free-kick in their own half. As seconds ticked away on the clock, Amelia instructed everyone to go forward in attempt to at least get one goal back before halftime.
However his mistimed free-kick was intercepted by Stankovic who struck the shot on the volley from half-way line, perfectly placing into the net, catching Amelia embarrassingly out of position, giving Inter a three goal advantage going into the break. Don’t worry Marco, it happened to Manuel Neuer as well, don’t mess with Il Drago next time.
With a comfortable lead at half-time, Mourinho immediately shifted focus to giving some of his starters a break for the mid-week champion’s league match against Shevchenko and Dynamo Kiev. With the luxury of having Patrick Vieira on the bench, it was a no-brainer bringing him on to give Cambiasso rest of the night off. Not sitting on their first half success, Nerazzurri kept pressing Genoa with Sneijder brilliantly dictating the flow of the attack.
Despite Gasperini packing his men tightly in defense, Sneijder was still able to glide effortlessly past them and find the likes of Balotelli, Stankovic, Vieira and late runs from Maicon specifically causing problems for the Rossoblu.
Gasperini desperate to get back into the match, brought on Hernan Crespo and Rodrigo Palacio together at sixty-two-minute mark as Floccari and Sculli had been nullified by Mourinho’s men.
However, the move didn’t pay off and Sneijder found Vieira in the center of the box, who scored Inter’s fourth of the match and his first goal of the season. It wasn’t over just yet at the Marassi.
Four minutes later, Maicon added insult to injury and added a thumping fifth goal for the Nerazzurri, bringing the game to an embarrassing 0-5 in favor of the champions. With a massive lead at hand and game firmly out of Genoa’s reach, Mourinho further rested Samuel and Sneijder in last twenty minutes and game ended as is, with a massive win for Inter.