Inter 3 Juventus 2
Cristian Chivu finally gets that big win. It’s been a running theme for Inter so far this season where they’ve struggled in the big matches against the likes of Milan, Napoli, Juventus before, Liverpool and Arsenal. Tonight looked like it was more of the same with Juventus coming out as the far better team in the first half before a Luiz Henrique cross got deflected past Di Gregorio from Andrea Cambiaso to give Inter the lead against the run of play. It didn’t take long for Juventus to respond with Henrique switching off at the far post allowing Cambiaso to sneak in and make it 1-1. Juventus continued to dominate before Pierre Kalulu received a second yellow in the 42nd minute for absolutely nothing which we’ll get into later but it changed the game completely for the second half. Juventus defended well in the second half until a perfect cross from Dimarco found Pio Esposito who headed home brilliantly past Sommer to put Inter 2-1 up. You’d think that would be that but Juventus responded through Locatelli who finished low past Sommer to draw Juve level in the 82nd minute. Just five minutes later Inter retook the lead through Piotr Zielinski who stayed composed outside the box and fired in the winner to give all 3 points to Inter after a brilliant match.
The red card changed the game completely. Juventus were playing some brilliant football in that first half and were dominating Inter at the San Siro before the referee decided to give a second yellow to Kalulu for nothing, it gets worse when you see the replay and there’s no contact whatsoever between Bastoni and Kalulu but the ref decides to send Kalulu off and ruin what was a really enthralling match. If the ref was actually doing his job he would have booked Bastoni for diving which actually would have resulted in a second yellow card for him after he was booked in the 9th minute. I think this was a good example of why VAR should be used when a second yellow card is issued as decisions like these can cost teams vital points when they are fighting for titles, top 4, relegation etc and I wouldn’t be surprised if Juventus were issued an apology from the Serie A for how the referee handled the issue.
Francesco Pio Esposito deserves a run of games for Inter. With Juventus down to 10 men for the second half, you would have thought that Inter would have been piling on the pressure and giving Di Gregorio something to think about in the net but they were so poor in that second half until Pio Esposito came on. I’ve been mightily impressed with Esposito whenever I’ve seen him so far this season and it’s rare that a young striker like him is so dominant in the air these days. The goal to put Inter ahead was superb with Dimarco getting his 12th assist in the league this season crossing it into Esposito who's bullet header found the net and cued pandemonium in the stands at San Siro. With Lautaro and Thuram having poor games it was important that someone stepped up from the bench to drag Inter over the line in such an important match and that’s exactly what Esposito did in that second half.
Positives to take for Juventus. Obviously they will be gutted to lose the derby in such circumstances but there are plenty of things to be positive about from a Juventus perspective. To come to the home of the league leaders and outplay them so much in that first half has to be highly encouraging for Spalletti who seems to be getting a tune out of these Juve players so far. The character they showed to draw level after Inter scored that second goal is also something to be positive about as they didn’t drop their heads even with 10 men. The one thing you could say that Juventus didn’t do well was to take the lead at some point in the game as they thoroughly deserved it from that first half performance but went in level at half time. If they continue to play like this I have no doubt they’ll finish in that top 4 this season despite how competitive that race has been so far this season.
What a huge 3 points for Inter. This 3 points puts Inter in such a strong spot for the rest of the season extending their lead over Milan to 8 points who do have a game in hand against Como that will be played on Wednesday to close the gap to 5 points. I just don’t see Milan making this title race last until the end of the season as we saw again just how strong Inter’s bench is when they need a result. I don’t think it’s the greatest Inter team we’ve seen over the past 5 or 6 years but the rest of the top teams in Serie A have been so inconsistent that they’ll end up extending that lead at the top over the next month or so. The Champions League is the big one for Inter this year but their performances against the big teams has left a lot to be desired in my opinion under Cristian Chivu so far so it’ll be interesting to see if he can sort that out before they face so of Europe’s elite teams again, Bodo-Glimt won’t be easy this week, just ask Manchester City, Inter will have to be on their A game.