Real Madrid-Inter Leader also in Europe

There is a brilliant Madrid and another responsible. The first is from Vinicius and Benzema. The second, from his three main midfielders, Alaba and Militao. This was the one that put Madrid in the hype of the best, a pack of wolves. Ancelotti’s team did not manage the whole game, but they did manage the main springs: Inter’s need, the mettle after a few overwhelming minutes and Kroos’ goal, his pass for the round of 16. He will therefore avoid the north face of the draw, after a more intelligent than dazzling match that once again magnified Kroos and Militao and contributed to Jovic’s rehabilitation. It will never be Benzema, worse left details that distance him from that expensive and unappetizing battering ram of his first two years.

Inter is not just anything. He won three European Cups and reached two finals. Luis Suárez, Mazzola and Fachetti played there, and more recently Brehme, Matthäus and Klinsmann. And although time passes, the story remains. And obliges. So Ancelotti treated him as he deserves, with his best eleven possible (inevitable that the team will not limp without Benzema). The occasion deserved it. And for the distribution of roles there were no preambles. Inter needed to win and got the ball. Madrid needed to run and gave it to him. In Kiev, Ancelotti was convinced that his team handles better in vertigo than in positional play because their exteriors are long dribble. So it was a showy start. To the unfinished gallop of Vinicius, Inter offered a double Croatian response. Brozovic was hit by three fingers from a whiplash from outside the area and a volley from Perisic was providentially entangled in the legs of the white defense.

Inter is a team of height. Conte left the treasure map (The three centrals, two flying wingers, three arrival midfielders, two points, an oppressive pressure) and Inzaghi is completing the route.

Kroos rompe al Inter

He did everything right from the start: he recovered, opened the field, went into the kitchen, and made Madrid much smaller. Everything seemed under control. Everything, except the versatility of the three Madrid midfielders, Ancelotti’s crutches, that tries to prove that in addition to being good, which they are, they are also unbreakable.

In the midst of that interista tide, a ball was lost on the edge of the Italian area, It fell to Kroos, no one closed the door and sent his right cross to the net. Where the elaboration does not reach, the talent arrives. The goal before the game and the proof that this Madrid is fire retardant, playing well or badly.

In a way, the San Siro match was repeated. Dumfries and Perisic led Inter to the Madrid area and the rest tried not to impose dominance: they finished nine times before half an hour. Madrid found themselves confined in the last quarter of the field, the territory of maximum suffering, although they have learned to live there or have been accustomed to Militao and Alaba, who go for a long-range couple. He showed it against Athletic and in some moments against Rayo and Real Sociedad. Sometimes, without noticing that the more goalkeeper (Courtois has been filled with miracles), the less team. Even at set pieces he protected himself between regular and bad.

Change the wind

Also this great Inter has its buts. And some miscalculation. Even crouching Madrid is Madrid. And when he was caught uncovered, he clearly stood before Handanovic. Jovic achieved it before the break, who has yet to show that he is part of the possible and not the impossible. He crashed his shot on the side of the net. In that troubled river of open games, Vinicius usually swims well, but this time he chose poorly in situations of frank superiority.

And since Madrid is a weather vane team, in the last minutes of the first half, he locked up Inter. A shot to the post by Rodrygo, in another fantastic pass from Kroos, and another to the side of the net balanced all the good that Inter had done until then.

Inzaghi had a preemptive response. Retired an offensive Dumfries to put a better sentinel to Vinicius, D’Ambrosio. At 9 ‘he had already taken a card from him. It was his only change of plans, because his team returned from the break with the same drive. Also with the same aim. Only in front of Courtois did Barella send a ball to the north end.

Barella signs the surrender

However, Inter had made their dominance much cheaper and Madrid had bridged the game at the hands of Kroos and Casemiro and with Vinicius always on the verge of riding a tremolina. Inzaghi’s triple change (with Vecino, Vidal and Alexis on stage) was misleading. It was not clear whether he intended to riot or reserve the substitutes for another battle. Inter was the game and Barella, the head. The Italian international responded with a punch to a legal charge from Militao. An absurd and deserved red.

There the game ended and the derby began. Madrid already only attended to maintenance work and Ancelotti took away a quarter of an hour of fatigue from the most punished. A kind of pocket rotation. This also comes out, because one of the newcomers, Asensio, scored the goal of the week, with a highly placed shot. And another, Hazard, had minutes of comfort. At the moment, it is not for more.