After a week of intense pressure on both coaches, it will arguably be Roma who will take more positives from the scoreless draw played out at the San Siro. With both teams adjusting to new formations, the game was an open affair with both teams having chances to take the points.
Inter coach Gian Piero Gasperini again tinkered with his formation, which saw Andrea Ranocchia, Joel Obi and unsurprisingly Wesley Sneijder included in a 3-5-2 formation. Luis Enrique continued with his favoured 4-3-3, however made a number of changes to the line-up after last weeks loss to Cagliari. Simone Perrotta and Rodrigo Taddei were deployed as fullbacks, while David Pizarro and youngster Fabio Borini were also included.
Inter (3-5-2): Cesar; Lucio, Samuel, Ranocchia; Nagatomo, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Obi, Sneijder; Forlan, Milito
Roma (4-3-3): Stekelenburg; Perrotta, Kjaer, Burdisso, Taddei; Pizarro, De Rossi, Pjanic; Osvaldo, Totti, Borini
The match got under way in torrential rain as Roma started by pressing high up the park, with Inter often breaking down looking to play the ball out from defence. The first real action of the game came when Lucio, who was always looking to get forward sprang the offside trap, only to make contact with an on-rushing Steklenberg’s head.
While Lucio received a yellow card, Steklenberg was stretchered from the field and was taken to hospital, to be replaced by Bogdan Lobont. He was later released from hospital with stitches, but otherwise the all clear.
The game began to open up, as Inter looked completely disorganised in their new formation. Ranocchia was struggling with the pace of Borini on the right, who had several half chances in the first half, the best of which came when he forced Julio Cesar into a sharp save following a corner.
On the other wing Dani Osvaldo was also creating chances and causing headaches as Lucio was continually found out of position and Yuto Nagatomo seemed unsure as to whether or not he should work back to support his defence or push forward to create an outlet.
In a positive for the Nerazzurri Javier Zanetti, celebrated equalling Giuseppe Bergomi’s record of 756 appearances at Inter by putting in a far superior performance than the uncharacteristically poor one he showed against Palermo a week earlier. In fact in the first half Zanetti’s strong runs were Inter’s main avenue forward as they struggled to link their play from the midfield forward.
With the beginning of the second half came a number of chances for Inter to hit the scoreboard. First Milito missed a diving header from a pin point Sneijder cross and then Mauro Zarate , who had just come on for the aforementioned Milito made a promising run before flashing his left foot shot past Lobont’s far post.
Roma however continued to maintain a higher rate of possession, mainly through the outstanding work of Daniele De Rossi, who taking up his new position in front of the defence, not only broke up the Inter play, but also distributed the ball around midfield and controlled the tempo of the game.
In a surprising move and one that will only further anger Inter supporters, the much maligned Sulley Muntari, was introduced late in the game for Forlan, showing that Gasperini looked more intent on maintaining the nil-all scoreline than going for the win.
In the final minutes Sneijder had a great chance to snatch the points after a Zarate cross found him unmarked in the box only for Kjaer to clear off the line. The game ended with whistles and taunts form the San Siro crowd, clearly unimpressed by what they’d seen on the night, and to begin the season.
The spot light will stay firmly on Gasperini in the coming week, as he tries to convince President Moratti he can turn the team around, and integrate his preferred formation, despite the growing doubts from the media and obvious anger from supporters.
For Roma a point away from home at the San Siro, and some encouraging individual performances will give them and coach Luis Enrique much needed confidence going forward,even if there is still a great deal of work to be done before they are playing the desired high standard of football expected from the new owners.
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