Basel - Inter

[chalon]

Davids had pain on his left knee before the game, nothing serious.

 

[J zanetti]

The goals + highlights from the game are now available on inter.it!

 

[bobati]

I'm watching the argentine-serb game, and Kily is playing great, with Tevez, really awesome.

Couldn´t agree more! Kily made a world class performance, really amazing! :star:

 

[SB9Dragon]

I missed the game but atleast the side managed to draw. Sounds like the squad was in the driver seat but a couple of unfortunate events stopped them from winning. Hopefully the side can get ready for the return leg in the Meazza and be fitter and have more luck in scoring so the team can advance.

 

[Frisko]

Adriano's goal has been described as amazing on various sites. Yahoo Sports quotes him saying this after the match:

"This goal is dedicated to my family and my dad. I was a bit tired after the journey and all that's happened, but I'm happy with my game. However we must be more deadly with our chances to score".

 

[MoH]

It’s an unlucky day, absolutely rotten for both sides, so let’ not get carried away with “What if” & why do need ******* goal posts/bars? Shouldn’t a square net tied with strings be enough? Oh well, we could have asked for a much smoother ride, nonetheless we had 4 players making their official competitive debut. So I’m sure you are more interested in how they performed than why the hell we should hate all hate Huggel ( :finger: ) and horrible refereeing. A great man once told me, "It’s a story of two halves" So lets jiggy with it?

FC Basel - Inter

First Half Story
Kick-off is about to start, and what does the cameraman spot? But Zicu, Davids, Moratti and President Facchetti enjoying the moments from the stands. The crowd looked happy enough, if you looked carefully you would find the odd Inter fan around. Diet Coke can in one hand, and a print out of the line-up in the other, I was good and ready for my first competitive Inter match...& I couldn’t have asked for a better atmosphere, the Swiss girls were quite an eyeful :sweeteye:

Kick-off, and two minutes later, Veron is having his arse kicked by none other than Huggel. Already the tension was high, and it seemed to have quite an effect on Veron, who looked like a girl in trouble? The crowd was after him, and so were the players (Not a debut I had in mind) & as the minutes went on, it’s was all evident for the whole word to see the Argentine trio of Rossi, Jimmy (Gimenez) and Delgado were a lot better than our own il Capitano, Veron and Cambiasso :sad2: Which is quite a blow, if you take pride in the Argentine roots of our team. Not to worry though! We are Inter, and we have Adriano and it didn’t take him long to destroy the weak and fragile Basel defense.

Credit to Gross, who has built quite a formidable team on the attack. They played to their strength, and with a bit of luck it has paid off. But alas, we could have ended the first half 3-1 at least.


Second Half Story
Sadly, the last part of our story is quite a dull affair, what do you expect when the opening footage showed a pleased Mihajlovic enjoying an ice cream? Nope I’m not kidding, I was so damn surprised; I recorded the moment on tape. But that was the only moment worth mentioning, oh wait...Ze Maria (Damn I could easily love this guy?) had a great free kick cleared off the line by Murat Yakin. Yeah, that’s a moment to treasure forever!

MoH’s Veron friendly Ratings
Toldo – 9/10 – Great to see Toldone back to his best, but have you asked yourself...What is Toldone like when he’s back to his best? Well, he single handedly saves the team in extremely dangerous situations, and he hasn’t failed to deliver tonight but why not a 10? Have you seen his performance against Valencia in the CL a few years ago? That’s what I call a 10!

J. Zanetti – 7/10 – He was running, he was encouraging, he was the leader...Yet, he was no Favalli? It’s a harsh way to judge someone I know!

Cordoba – 8/10 – Lightning fast and precise, how come I gave him an 8? Because sadly, a man of his talent shouldn’t have suffered this much...He even seemed to have injured his shoulder in the process, let’s hope it’s not serious (Or even better, he was only faking it)

Materazzi – 6/10 – Above average performance, I would have expected him to have a lot more physical presence...I couldn’t be crueler if I wanted to.

 

[MoH]

Favalli – 10/10 – Here was I expecting him to have an average night, I’m not sure if this is a performance of a life time or there’s actually more to this man than we have ever imagined? A well-timed tackle, passes, headers, runs the whole package.

Ze Maria – 10/10 – I knew he was consistent, but I didn’t expect him to have a telepathic understanding with Adriano...It’s as if they have played together all their life? & you guys think Recoba and Adriano are quite a pairing? If his performance doesn’t count for a 10, how about hitting the bar and having a nice free kick cleared off the line?

Veron – 5/10 – Lets get something straight, the guys was whistled thought out the whole match (Starting from that incident with Huggel) and it seemed to get to him (Which is a bit disappointing…I guess he is an emotional guy :dielaugh: ) & as time went on he became more and more frustrated, he was still controlling play, but not with an iron fist. At the closing minutes, a dubious replay showed a clear stomp by Veron, before that incident happened; Chipperfield had a wild swing at his knees…Why would Chipperfield attack Veron? I wish I knew, the whole Basel players, fans, etc seemed to hate him?

Cambiasso – 7/10 - *Looks at the Inter.it ratings* Why does Cambiasso and Favalli have such low scores? He was good, but no way did he put on a performance like the other first timers…Hmm, thinking about it carefully! The ones with Serie A experience seem to fit in perfect and amazingly well, while the others have yet to explode into the scene, nonetheless he created the chance for Adriano, without his hard work the goal wouldn’t have happened.

Stankovic – 10/10 – Wow, is he on form or should we expect a lot more? The guy is unbelievable, if he can keep this up, and I don’t see why? He should become a future football legend, the guy has it all! I mean is it just me or has he become so ******* good after leaving Lazio? He even hit the post from 25 yards! Forza Deki!

Recoba – 6/10 – Hasn’t done himself a favor in trying to establish himself in the first team plans. Nor has he turned crap all of a sudden. Ran rings around the Basel defense, but the finished product just wasn’t there…neither for him or the Inter team in fact.

Adriano – 7/10 – He just had a traumatic week, and right from kick-off he had the right determination to get his precious goal, and no ******* defender is going to stop him, so what should he do? Well how about dribble four defender, the Goalkeeper and shoot the ball calmly on the top of the net? & boy does he deliver, his goal was simply magnificent, something you dream about when you’re a kid (Hey, even Zicu jumped from his seat in excitement, very cool moment) But sadly, his desire, stamina, and ability seemed to fade away as time went on after the goal…Which is pretty much acceptable. Since I’m sure he had one thing in mind before, which is to dedicate a goal to his dad and nothing else.

Ventola – 5/10 – Very weird substitution (& thankfully I wasn’t the only one puzzled) wasn’t able to show any authority on the match at all...

Emre - Not much to rate or rave about.


MoH’s rating of Mancini’s Tactics
7/10
I would have substituted both Veron and Adriano during the interval; Cruz would come on for Adriano (While the brazilin provides attacking threat, Cruz would provide a much needed platform for eventual team attacks) Emre or Karagounis could come on for Veron, since both can provide the ammunition needed upfront. To be honest, I think we could have benefited a lot more if we made these substitutions/much earlier.


MoH’s FC Basel Rating: -
[4-3-3]
GK: Zupi – 9/10
DR: P. Degen – 610
DC: M. Yakin – 710
DC: Smiljanic – 5/10
DL: Kleber –6/10
MR:Cantaluppi – 8/10
MCelegado – 7/10
ML:Chipperfield – 7/10
FW:Huggel – 10/10
SC:Jimmy – 5/10
FW: Rossi - 610

What went wrong according to MoH
1. We needed a lot more authority on the middle of the pitch

2. Awful refereeing, the goal we conceded came after the players and Toldo were trying to adjust the wall, I didn’t even hear him whistle for play to start. He allowed the stomp by Veron and the abuse he received to go on, he even handed a yellow card for a very deliberate handball?

3. Huggle was simply too good.

4. Zupi made some great saves

5. We were pretty unlucky

6. At the heart of our midfield was our weak link a.k.a Veron

This Match should be remembered for:-

• Adriano’s goal
• Hitting the post and the bar as well as having a goal cleared
• Ze Maria’s competitive debut
• Favalli’s competitive debut

This Match shouldn’t be remembered for:-

• Veron’s performance/incident
• How unlucky we were
• Mancini’s competitive debut
• Huggel scoring or hitting the post.

Commercial of the Week
Del Piero chatting to a talking bird about the benefits of drinking mineral water (?) :dielaugh:

 

[Ziyad]

MoH ,just a superb job....

Not only informative but entertaining too....

:star: :star: :star:

 

[Frisko]

Commercial of the Week
Del Piero chatting to a talking bird about the benefits of drinking mineral water (?) :dielaugh:

God I almost pity Del Piero, the guy makes fun of himself, we don't even have to try do it ourselves!! :dielaugh:

Great review MoH, I'm disappointed in Veron but it was his first official game. It's great that Favalli and Ze Maria did so well (I think you should credit Mancini for taking a gamble and playing them instead of Emre-Pasquale).

Recoba should have done much better. I don't mind if he's not brilliant, I can understand that. But I after I read twice that he kept making tricks and losing the ball instead of passing, he just pissed me off

 

[Pravesh]

Interesting report as usual, MoH.

After watching the highlights, and mainly after reading the reports, I think Mancini shud have done:

# Substituted Veron for Emre / Karagounis a bit earlier.
# Cruz shud have come in for Adriano/Recoba, and not Ventola.

But who cares that much, it was our first game.

 

[Handoyo]

1-1 is without a shadow of a doubt a good result considering the fact that Basel is very ahead of us in terms of fitness level. We also manage to get a priceless away goal. Do I need to remind you how important an away goal is?

Season 02/03 - CL 1/4 Final
Inter - Valencia 1-0
Valencia - Inter 2-1
Inter qualify through the away goal rule

Season 02/03 - CL Semi-Final
Milan - Inter 0-0
Inter - Milan 1-1
Milan qualify through the away goal rule

Season 03/04 - UEFA Cup (Forget which stage)
Sochaux - Inter 2-2
Inter - Sochaux 0-0
Inter qualify through the away goal rule


Handyo

 

[bobati]

I am not girl??

You don´t know? :dielaugh:

 

[Enricos]

Adriano: Simply unstoppable:

Adriano moments before scoring against Basel

Adriano beats an opponent and is ready to shoot home

The Inter players celebrate the Brazilian's goal

Pwnd by Adriano

 

[InteristaMensur]

I'm watching the argentine-serb game.

Don't mentio it ,PLEASE!!!! :depress: :frustrat:

 

[cool_cuchu]

great report, MOH perhaps u should open ur own thread in the writing section...

 

[Giorgio]

Great report MoH, I'm really hoping that Veron's bad start isn't a sign of things to come :scared:

Anyway, like Handoyo said, 1-1 isn't a bad result, in fact I'm quite pleased with it

 

[scutzon]

Maan. I just watched the highlights of the match, and it definitely looked like we were suposed to win. Just looked away from Huggel's post-hitting shot, and the victory's supposed to be ours. But, yet again, Lady Luck don't seem to be on our side. But nonetheless, I think our chances of qualifying for the next round is slightly larger than that to Juventus's.

And, BTW, is that commentator on the match highlights on Inter.it an Interista? I'm almost sure he is judgin by his reaction to Adriano's goal. I swear he almost went cuckoo.

 

[Handoyo]

And, BTW, is that commentator on the match highlights on Inter.it an Interista? I'm almost sure he is judgin by his reaction to Adriano's goal. I swear he almost went cuckoo.

You didn't know? The commentator is Roberto Scarpini, Inter Channel director.


Handyo

 

[scutzon]

And, BTW, is that commentator on the match highlights on Inter.it an Interista? I'm almost sure he is judgin by his reaction to Adriano's goal. I swear he almost went cuckoo.

You didn't know? The commentator is Roberto Scarpini, Inter Channel director.


Handyo

Oooh. So he's the all famous, Scarpi! Cool! I didn't know that.

 

[Jimmy]

It´s an okay result really. The most important thing was not to lose and get any away goals. Too bad we only got one, but we went really close with Ze Maria that was headed to the crossbar.

On the highlights, I could notice that we have severe problems in movements in defence. Many Basel players open as soon as they played one-touch-football. We need to work on that.

We have the advantage for the home game, surely.