September 20th, 1992 – The 1992-93 Serie A season was one with a lot of changes for the Inter as the club, following an abysmal 9th place finish in the previous season, appointed Osvaldo Bagnoli as manager.
The Nerazzurri also sold German stars Jurgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthaus and Andreas Brehme from the memorable side in the late 80’s back to the Bundesliga and replaced them with Igor Shalimov, Ruben Sosa, Darko Pancev and Salvatore Schillaci.
Before taking over as manager for the Nerazzurri, Bagnoli was leading Genoa and led them to a disappointing fourteenth place finish.
However, it was his remarkable first season at Genoa as their manager which caught the eye of Nerazzurri management, when he finished fourth in league table, highest finish for a Genoa side in over fifty years.
The two-year tenure as Nerazzurri manager starting in 1992-93 season would be his last of his managerial career.
New comers Igor Shalimov and Ruben Sosa were crucial for Nerazzurri success during the 92-93 campaign, as both players quickly became regulars in first team.
Meanwhile Salvatore Schillaci and Darko Pancev struggled much of the season which made Ruben Sosa’s 20 goal contribution vital for the second-place finish.
After the Scudetto winning season with Diego Maradona in 1989-90, Napoli struggled to repeat their successful season which resulted in Maradona leaving the club to join Sevilla in 1991.
After his departure, Napoli struggled and that poor run of form carried on into 1992-93 Serie A season, where the club got dangerously close to the relegation zone.
Starting the season with Claudio Ranieri as team manager, the team found themselves in the relegation zone close to Christmas in 1992 and replaced him with Ottavio Bianchi who led them out of the relegation zone with a strong performance in the month of January.
Earlier on in the 92-93 season, Inter travelled to Naples to take on Claudio Ranieri’s Napoli side in round three. Inter started the season negatively with a loss away against Udinese.
However they bad bounced back to get first win of the season at home against Cagliari in round two. While Napoli were off to a decent start, tying first match against Brescia at home and winning 4-2 away against Foggia in round two.
With both sides trying to establish their team chemistry and style of play early in the season, the match in Naples was an early season test both sides.
Starting eleven for Napoli were, Giovanni Galli, Ciro Ferrara, Roberto Policano, Fausto Pari, Massimo Tarantino, Giancarlo Corradini, Angelo Carbone, Jonas Thern, Marco Ferrante, Gianfranco Zola and Daniel Fonseca.
For the visiting Nerazzurri side the starters were, Walter Zenga, Giuseppe Bergomi, Luigi De Agostini, Nicola Berti, Riccardo Ferri, Sergio Battistini, Alessandro Bianchi, Igor Shalimov, Salvatore Schillaci, Matthias Sammer and Ruben Sosa.
Much of the first half of the match remained in balance as both teams took a cautious and calculated approach to the match, not committing too many men forward and staying compact in defense.
In second half of the match, it didn’t take long for Inter to break the deadlock. Napoli remained compact in defense and through the middle of the field.
Nerazzurri tried to play long-ball passes to find Schillaci and Sosa in attack. Around fifty-four-minute mark, Nicola Berti’s long pass to Sosa, led to the opening goal of the match.
Sosa outmuscled the defender to draw him out and left open space for Sammer to put away the ball in the bottom left corner of the goal to give Inter a 1-0 lead.
After conceding, Napoli came out of their shell a little bit and committed men forward looking for the tying goal. In doing so however they left more gaps in defense which Inter quickly exploited.
A counter-attack opportunity around fifty-seventh minute Schillaci and Sosa played quick passes through the middle of the field with three defenders ahead of them, to score Inter’s second goal of the match.
Schillaci latched on to a pass from Sosa after he drew multiple defenders in his direction, leaving Schillaci completely open inside the box, powerfully struck shot placed in the bottom left corner of the goal, gave the visitors a comprehensive 2-0 lead.
As game drew closer to conclusion, Daniel Fonseca scored a goal off a corner kick to make things interesting in later stages of the match.
However Napoli was unable to score the tying goal and Inter secured their second win of the season in a stadium where the team has historically struggled a bit.
