5 Things we learned from Inter’s thrilling comeback win against Napoli
That might just be the game of the season so far. If you’re not a Serie A watcher then I feel sorry that you missed an absolute cracker tonight between Inter and Napoli, the first half was far from a classic but both teams had chances that they really should have taken with Dimarco hitting the post from a free-kick and Anguissa forcing a good save from Martinez. Napoli came out for the second half with a vengeance and took the lead in the 49th after Barella gave the ball away to Hojlund who found Alysson Santos who’s shot was saved by Martinez but the ball fell kindly to Politano who’s first two initial shots were saved but at the third time of asking the former Inter man put Napoli 0-1 up. The goal seemed to stun Inter as just two minutes later Napoli doubled their lead after all the Inter players switched off thinking the ball was running out for a throw-in but Di Lorenzo kept it in and played the ball to Hojlund on the edge of the box who curled an absolute beauty into the corner to stun the San Siro and put Allegri’s side 0-2 up, Inter had to respond quick and they did just four minutes after the Napoli goal as the ball was swung to the back-post by Zielinski to Dimarco who played the ball across the box to Lautaro Martinez who got one back for Inter to cap of a crazy ten minutes at the start of the second half. It felt like an Inter equaliser was inevitable and as we ticked over the 80 minute mark they did equalise after Carlos Augusto’s cross was headed in superbly by Marcus Thuram to set us up for a grand stand finish at the San Siro, with both teams going at it in the last ten minutes Napoli should have scored the winner through Zambo Anguissa but it was Inter who would get the winner after Curtis Jones’ cross wasn’t cleared properly by Napoli with Akanji flicking the ball to the back-post where who else but Lautaro Martinez was waiting to score the winner. What a second half of football in the Serie A.
Inter are still the team to beat in the Serie A. If there was one stick you could beat Cristian Chivu with last season it was that his side really struggled in the games against the likes of Napoli, Juventus, Milan and it looked like this game was heading the same way before his side showed real character to get back into the game and in the end score a well deserved winner in my opinion. The first half was a real struggle for Inter with the likes of Pio Esposito, Barella and Sucic struggling which saw Chivu take Esposito and Sucic off at half-time which I thought was brave but clearly the right decision as Curtis Jones and Marcus Thuram had real impact on the game, defensively there were problems in the second half last week against Cagliari and there was more of the same today giving away two really soft goals at the start of the second half. When you’re backs against the wall and you’re teams losing that’s when you want you’re captain to turn up and as always Lautaro Martinez is the man to show up when it matters the most for Inter with two goals in the nick of time, it makes you wonder why Scaloni didn’t use him in the World Cup final when his team needed a goal. Overall it’s a champions victory from Inter who remain perfect in the Serie A after three matches, can anyone take that title away from them this season?
What could have been for Napoli this evening? In the first half you could have argued that Napoli were the better side and looked really dangerous on the counter-attack through Politano and Hojlund who both had chances to open the scoring but snatched at their ealry chances, the same couldn’t be said for the second half with both Politano and Hojlund scoring for Allegri’s side in a brilliant first five minutes for Napoli. From there however they dropped back further and further and allowed Inter to send cross after cross into the box which did lead to the three goals in the end, even after conceding the equaliser they had two guilt-edge chances in the last ten minutes through David Neres and Zambo Anguissa that easily should have won them the game. They missed Scott McTominay greatly today who is out having undergone surgery on his heart last week and will be missing until at least after the international break or longer, had one of them chances fallen to him we might be having a completely different conversation. Overall it’s a devastating result for Napoli that shows they are far off challenging for the Serie A this season under Allegri, I’d be surprised to see them finishing in the top 4 this season.
When will Lautaro Martinez start getting the respect he deserves? In Italy the Inter captain quite rightly is given the undoubted respect that he deserves but I don’t feel like that same sentiment is given around Europe for some reason, this is a guy that has scored 177 goals in 379 games for Inter along with playing a pivotal role in three Serie A title wins and three Coppa Italia trophies in his eight years at Inter. This along with making two Champions League finals and scoring the winner in the Copa America final in 2024 but yet I still don’t see people talking about him as one of the best strikers in the world, whether that’s because he’s playing in Italy or not I’m not so sure but this guy consistently scores over 20 goals a season for Inter no matter what and there’s not many strikers that can say the same around Europe. Just look at today for example with his team 0-2 down and staring defeat in the face he steps up with two pivotal goals to save his side and rescue the three points, I hope by the end of his career Lautaro gets the respect his career undoubtedly deserves. I don’t think Inter fans will care that much.
What’s up next for these two sides? For Inter they take a tantalising trip to the Bernabeu on Tuesday to face Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid whilst Napoli take on Arsenal at the Maradona on Wednesday where they’ll look to bounce back from this defeat, in the Serie A next weekend Inter take on Udinese at home whilst Napoli face Bologna at home as well. I’ll not be here to cover Juventus vs AC Milan tomorrow but I can’t see it living up to this game this evening, I could be wrong though.