Inter scored from their first chance and shot tonight as the ball squirted under Buffon to give them a lead against the run of play.
Then Young decided to forget all his learnings in his career and pulled down Cuadrado to gift Juve a way back in the game.
More comical defending came to the fore as a simple Stefan De Vrij back pass led to confusion between Bastoni and Samir Handanovic who handed Cristiano Ronaldo the ball and an open net to score from.
Inter were losing their heads towards the end of the first half as they were caught out multiple times by Juve’s midfield.
But the half time came and Conte gathered his men around and managed to bring the focus and spirit back. Inter knocked the door several times in the second half.
Juve made mistakes but Sanchez and Eriksen couldn’t score. Buffon produced a world class save off Darmian to give the Old Lady a nice lead going into the second leg at the Allianz arena in the week
Samir Handanovic – 5.5: Just made one save in each half. Yes, his teammates let him down, but his indecisiveness and lack of pace were exposed on Ronaldo’s 2nd goal.
Milan Skriniar – 6.5: Not much time on the ball for Skriniar as Juve harried and pressed Inter at every chance. Still managed to look better than his defensive teammates.
Stefan De Vrij – 6: As Juve pressed a lot higher and were cutting down cross field passes for fun; Stefan was left exposed with his lack of pace. Slightly better 2nd half.
Alessandro Bastoni – 6: Just like Samir he made a major mistake of gifting a 2nd away goal to Juve. The way he came back out in the second half showed his personality.
Matteo Darmian – 6: Steady game on his flank. Should have also had a goal tonight, but for Buffon. Looked decent defensively and combined well with Skriniar. Quality.
Nicolo Barella – 6.5: The assist to Lautaro was delightful, but then he made too many casual errors till he got in. In the second half he was back to his usual classy self.
Marcelo Brozovic – 6: Unlike the game last month, Pirlo did not let Brozovic have the freedom of the Meazza pitch. After a poor first half, he looked slightly better later.
Arturo Vidal – 5.5: Concentrated more on the defensive side of his game in the first half, could not keep up with the younger opponents. Will miss the 2nd leg now.
Ashley Young – 5.5: Young has been in football long enough to know what Cuadrado was doing there. Got his positioning wrong and allowed Juve to make a comeback.
Lautaro Martinez – 6.5: Scored off the only chance his teammates created in the first half. Battled and toiled hard but barely anything fell for him. Gave it his all tonight.
Alexis Sanchez – 6.5: Looked like he was back in form against Benevento and confirmed that with a sparkly start. Just like Darmian should have scored that chance. Spark.
Ivan Perisic – 5.5: The usual Perisic performance. Gets the ball in space, does the same step over to the edge of the penalty box, left foot cross hits the first defender.
Christian Eriksen – 5.5: Could not bring the same impact as he did last week, but Conte has surely found another midfielder. Also guilty of missing a half decent chance.
Stefano Sensi – N/A: Brought on for a Brozovic who had a topsy turvy game. Did not have much time on the ball to make an impact. Hopefully gets more minutes soon.
Andrea Pinamonti – N/A: Just enough time for him to make a couple of fouls and an awkward cross for Lautaro. Maybe deserves some time when Inter are comfortably ahead.
Antonio Conte – 6: Not much Conte could have done about the two first half goals conceded. Did very well to refocus his team and dominated Juve without any luck.
Gianpaolo Calvarese – 5.5: Gave Juve a very soft penalty and blew for a lot of fouls that were not there for both sides. The game was close to boiling over but kept it together.
Inter – 5.5 : In the pre match conference ,Conte asked his team to cut down individual errors. Inter’s lead should not have been overturned in the first half.
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