Hello Interfriends,
Well Mancini rested many players for the match against Porto but he could have rested the whole team because none of them showed up to play in the first half at least. It was a boring match with Inter making many mistakes and not creating hardly any chances at all. 1-1 against Lazio is all that could be gained.
Mancini rested key players like Martins, Cambiasso, Stankovic and so on but it left Inter with no spark on the pitch. Emre playing along side C. Zanetti did not give the midfield the same bite while Kily on the left was a total spectator for the match except for one shot in the second half and one dribble also in the second.
Veron did his best to pick out a pass for Adriano and Cruz who got the start but never found a way through. Adriano still looks miserable. He is not moving, only took on a defender once or twice and more so looks heavy and slow.
Adriano did score in the first half but his goal was disallowed. It was judged to be put in by his hand but in reality it came off his chest. Inthe control leading to the goal however the ball did come off his hand but for sure was not intentional.
So I'm not sure if they called it back for that reason or the last touch.
Anyway, Lazio never attacked, but did so once at the end of the half and of course as is custom with Inter this year the first shot on goal goes into the net. The Fillipini brothers combine as one crosses for the other and puts the ball past Toldo to finish the half 1-0.
Inter do come out with more spark in the second and Mancini makes some changes bringing on Coco for Kily, and Stankovic for C. Zanetti. Its Ze Maria who finally decides to move forward something he did not do all first half and sends a perfect cross for Cruz to head into the top corner.
Mancini tries for the final push by bringing on Van Der Meyde for Ze Maria but it was not to be as they could not create too many more chances. Inter did see a rocket of a shot come back off the cross bar from Stankovic in injury time though which would have given us the win.
Overall, little football was played by both clubs, but what was played was all shown by Inter. Call it unlucky or what you like but our opposition seem to be able to score on limited chances and capitalize on all our defensive mistakes. Once again we could have won but didn't. Just imagine if we turned half of our draws to wins we would be in first place!!
Still we can mark this our 17th draw. Lets hope for better against Porto but as a final point I just want to say that Adriano is worrying me alot. He looks like a shell of his former self.
Lets hope Europe will spark his interest again, but based on his performance tonight I would not blame Mancini to sit him like he did in the Derby. (But then again none of the Inter players really played great so who knows)
Eddy