Three Inter Milan Stars “Transformed” When Playing In Champions League

Three Inter players look to be “transformed” into the best versions of themselves when the Champions League anthem plays this season.

This is the view in today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews, who hail the performances of Romelu Lukaku, Andre Onana, and Denzel Dumfries in particular in Europe’s top club competition this season.

First, there is Lukaku.

Expectations were massive when the Belgian made his shock return on loan from Chelsea last summer, but it would be fair to say he has not lived up to them.

Injuries have played a major role in the 29-year-old not making anything like the impact that he did during his first two seasons in a Nerazzurri shirt, as even when he has been fit to play the match-fitness has not really been there for him to dominate the league as he once had.

However, Lukaku’s goal was the decisive factor against Porto in the round of sixteen of the Champions League, and he also scored the most cold-blooded of penalties against Benfica in the quarterfinals.

Even with all of the setbacks that he has been dealt this season, under the brightest lights in European competition, the Belgian has shown that he still knows how to make the decisive impact.

In the case of Dumfries, it has been less clear why exactly the 26-year-old has been so far off his best for long periods in the league, but few would deny that he’s spent periods of the campaign, particularly after the World Cup, out of form.

However, the former PSV man has come up with massive last-ditch blocks to preserve clean sheets against each of Benfica and Porto in the Champions League, whilst he also proved decisive in winning a penalty at the Estadio da Luz on Tuesday.

Speaking of clean sheets, Onana has now kept six in the Champions League, and has not yet conceded a goal in the knockout rounds of the competition.

It is less of a “Jekyll and Hyde” situation with the Cameroonian than it perhaps has been with Lukaku and Dumfries.

However, as Tuttosport observes, there have been one or two shaky moments for Onana in his first season at Inter in the league, for example his allowing an overhit cross by Salernitana’s Antonio Candreva to sail right into the goal on Friday.

In the Champions League, however, it would be hard to identify a single fault with the 27-year-old’s displays, as he has been one of the Nerazzurri’s crucial players ever since the first match.