Chivu surprisingly eliminated from the Norwegian team: he pays for the preparation errors of an underestimated match. His first European campaign was negative, now the championship to make people forget the disappointment.
End of the journey, off we go. Inter say goodbye to the Champions League against Bodo Glimt, paying for the defeat of the first leg in the freezing cold of Norway and the mistakes of an evening in which they did a lot, but not enough, to bounce back from their destiny. A well-deserved qualification for Knutsen’s team and an elimination about which Chivu will have a lot to reflect on and just as much to complain about: the championship remains to be finalized and an Italian Cup to chase, but having come out in a playoff that is on paper affordable extends a car over the entire season.
The summary of the match at San Siro is in the numbers of a first half that was only apparently dominated: 74% ball possession, 12 shots towards the opponent’s goal and a long series of corner kicks. All to give birth to a couple of opportunities without ever giving the feeling of being able to break through the orderly defense of Bodo Glimt. Akanji’s error which paved the way for Hauge’s (himself) lead provided the coup de grâce and Evjen’s second made the Nerazzurri’s final assault academic.
What remains of Inter’s Champions League? Too little to not give a negative rating. She won when she couldn’t help herself at the beginning, she lost when the bar was raised and above all she wasn’t able to see the danger that was coming when the Nyon urn chose the Bodo Glimt. There are those who will imagine leaving Europe as an advantage on the road to the Scudetto in an entirely provincial vision that belongs only to Italian football which, it is no coincidence, risks being out of everything in February.
The reality is that last year’s finalist’s European campaign was a failure. There are no different terms and now it will be up to Marotta and Ausilio to make things right because the rebound from the knockout is also economic as well as sporting: the race to Monaco a year ago was the basis of Oaktree’s first, historic, balance sheet surplus. Now the lower revenues will have to be compensated in some way and the next market will be affected. This is, despite the superficial reassurances.
Post scriptum: Norway continues to be indigestible for Italian football and the time has come to realize it. Roma and Lazio had already lost in Bodo and Juventus had barely won. The Italian hopes of going directly to the World Cup were wrecked in Oslo. These were sufficient signs not to underestimate a double challenge which, for too long, was only talked about due to the weather conditions and the resistance of the synthetic pitch. Inter’s Champions League began to fade at that moment.
