Cagliari A Test Of Inter Milan’s Ruthlessness Against Smaller Teams – A Major Weakness Last Season

This evening’s Serie A match away to Cagliari is an early test of Inter Milan’s ruthlessness against smaller teams.

This is the view in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews.

Last season, Inter’s results against the “smaller” teams in Serie A was a big Achilles’ heel in their league campaign.

However, it is not as though the Nerazzurri never lost to teams in the top half of the table. Early defeats against AC Milan, Roma, and Lazio were big early blows.

Meanwhile, the Nerazzurri lost both home and away to Juventus in the league.

However, Inter avenged their early losses to all of Milan, Roma, and Lazio with emphatic wins in the second half of the campaign.

Subsequently, it was a win against Napoli in January that briefly gave the Nerazzurri hope of competing for the Serie A title.

Cagliari Will Test Inter Milan’s Mettle In The “Smaller” Matches

Out of sixty points on offer against teams who finished eleventh through twentieth, Inter took just 42. This is fewer than Lazio or Juventus (44 each) and far behind Napoli.

Inter suffered highly damaging away losses against Udinese and Spezia.

Meanwhile, both Empoli and Monza shocked the San Siro by leaving with three points.

Then, there were unexpected draws away to Sampdoria and Salernitana, where Inter’s lack of a clinical edge made them pay.

Inter have passed their first test of the season – they cruised to a 2-0 win over Monza in their Serie A opener.

And there will be, on paper, many tougher matches than this evening’s at the Sardegna Arena.

But in truth, over the last couple seasons, Inter have looked more than capable of showing title-winning form in head-to-head clashes with their direct rivals.

Last season, those were not the kinds of matches that gave the Nerazzurri the most grief.

So now, in their first away match of the season, Inter will want to put last season’s particular struggles in the past.

Inter travel to Sardinian to face a newly-promoted Cagliari team – and they’ll be desperate to look convincing and ruthless.