In Munich the challenge between Simone Inzaghi and Luis Enrique. Technical characteristics, hunger for victory and quality of the squad: the match that is worth the title sees the Nerazzurri in the part of those who have great chances of victory
Saturday 31 May at 9 pm at the Allianz in Munich, Inter enters as a favorite in the Champions League final against PSG. Light favorite, not beyond, because the level of the challenge is such that it does not allow exaggerations. However, it is a fact that the journey to Germany of Simone Inzaghi’s team is accompanied by profoundly different sensations compared to that on Istanbul of 2023 and also to Juventus’ precedents in Berlin (2015) and Cardiff (2017). The bianconeri were true outsiders against the Barcelona of Luis Enrique, defeated with a very high head, while a few more chances were accredited in the challenge with the Real Madrid of Cristiano Ronaldo, only to then the bitter glass of a second half not played. And Guardiola’s Manchester City had all the favors of the prediction two years ago, then forced to sweat the proverbial seven shirts to get the better of the Nerazzurri.
The completion of the Inter cycle in three years of the Champions League
A status built on the field within this and the last European seasons of Inter. Since February 2023, the second phase of the Champions League then ended in Istanbul, Inzaghi has lost only three games in Europe: the final with Manchester City, the return of the round of 16 against Atletico Madrid and the trip to the home of Bayer Leverkusen in December faced with the second lines. Three on 29 challenges, traveled by a great team and that erases any hypothesis of randomness: having guaranteed the possibility of raising the cup to the cup sky is not the result of the case, but fulfillment of a cycle that has returned to Inter an international dimension of excellence. Inzaghi loves to remember that he had inherited the team in 24th place in the UEFA ranking for Club that he brought it to the 6th position which in August will be much higher having to discard the results of 2020/2021, the winer of Conte eliminated from everything already in December. Change of mentality and radical technical characteristics.
Here, the awareness that in Munich performs a cycle that has very solid bases is the first reason why Inter can be considered the ‘big’ of the final. The PSG is at the second final of its history after the one lost against Bayern Munich in 2020 and came to us in the year when Mbappé’s departure closed the era of the collection of very champion and stickers in the album of the al-Khelaifi sheikh album. Luis Enrique succeeded in the company failed by his predecessors: to build a logical team and not a simple assembly of precious pieces, often incompatible with each other. It should be remembered, however, that the Parisian path was far from linear and that two games from the end of the first phase the risk of remaining out of everything was concrete, canceled only by reassembling the City and beating the Stuttgart to get to the playoff.
How the PSG of Luis Enrique plays: strengths and weak points
Having said that from then on the performance grew exponentially, touching the peak in the challenge to Anfield against Liverpool and in that of the Parco dei Principi with Arsenal, it cannot be noted that the PSG arrives at the Champions League final above all thanks to the miracle of Gianluigi Donnarumma. A monster, when the level rises: the winning national team knows in the 2021 European Championship and now the French have also learned that for two years have questioned it. PSG defends well, much better than Barcelona to be clear, but it is still perforable.
In the shifts against Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal granted the opponents a total of 74 conclusions to the Gigio gate, at times a siege. It is true that in seasonal statistics it has better numbers (for example 44 parades against the 56 of Inter) and the best performance under the item recovered (694, Inter and 5th with 522), but the image left in the direct elimination phase was that of a attackable team.
In attack it has fantasy and quality, albeit without reaching the peaks of the Barcelona of Lamine Yamal. It has the best figure of the shots made (300) and an average of 2.07 goals per game, despite not having a classic reference center forward. The attackers are dembelé or doué, the season has definitively revealed Barcola but neither of the three is included in the top lists per department in international football. And then there is Kvaratschkelia whose impact on the PSG, where 75 million euros arrived in January, was immediate and remarkable: strong, but something already known and readable for the defensive organization of Inzaghi. The same goes for the other ‘Italians’: Hakimi and Fabian Ruiz.
In short, the PSG is very strong because otherwise it would not have climbed until the Champions League final, but does not propose on the card more than they may have put Bayern Monaco and Barcelona in the field that Inter has passed in the quarterfinals and in the semifinals. The Nerazzurri have shown that they are scheduled for the European goal and to consider it, perhaps unconsciously, the peak of a cycle that in the summer will have to be revitalized with courageous and painful choices. For some monk of Bavaria it will be a solta of ‘Last Dance’, the last chance to conquer the Champions League. A great motivation that can move the weight of the prediction.
