The championship restarts where it stopped in May, with the Nerazzurri dominating. What worked (a lot) and what didn’t (not much) in the debut enhanced by a super goal from Pio Esposito.
The “old” Inter is enough for the moment, the new one will be seen. Monza overwhelmed at the debut of the Italian champions in the season which must be that of confirmation in the championship and the assault on the Europe that counts; predictable ending of the match against Monza, who arrived at San Siro in full emergency, but still comforting responses for Chivu. Also because the heart of the market watched for a long time from the bench (Stones entered after the games were over, Pavard returned, Stankovic and Provedel) or in the stands (Jones and Spence).
The partial effort before the break, which the Nerazzurri went to after being joined by Varela after Calhanoglu’s surface-to-air missile which had opened the proceedings, should not be deceiving. August football stuff, even if with the three points up for grabs and not at the pace of the friendly match: it was enough for the Nerazzurri, however, to raise the pace in the second half to close the game quickly.
THE 2026/2027 SERIE A GRID ACCORDING TO THE PANORAMA
Inter, good things for Chivu in the victory against Monza
Chivu can be satisfied with what his team put on the field in the first real ninety minutes of the season. Meanwhile, the confirmation of the depth of the squad, so much so that they can afford to resolve everything without resorting to new additions. Then Lautaro Martinez’s mad desire to keep his Inter shirt on and stay in the center of the village: he is not yet in condition, he played just under an hour also thinking about the commitments to come (the match against Napoli is in two weeks), but overall he carried out his task with sufficient performance.
Next to him was Pio Esposito who added the gem of the back-heel goal to his usual dirty (but very useful) work in melees with the opposing defence: Mancini will have taken notes, not without satisfaction. Having said that Calhanoglu has picked up where he left off, albeit in less than optimal condition, Zielinski is now a starter and Diouf, free from defensive tasks, always creates numerical superiority, the evening at San Siro can go down in the archives with a smile and with the first points of the championship.
In the end, the best news arrived before the match and was the clearness with which Beppe Marotta removed Lautaro Martinez from the market, if he had ever been one: words that close every window of opportunity in Barcelona’s thoughts and which also take away bad thoughts from Chivu, who on the eve of the game had remained cautious and had refused to make his captain’s stay official.
Inter, what went wrong in the debut against Monza
Of course there is also the flip side of the coin. Between Varela’s momentary equalizer, who was good at playing with his body on Akanji, and the providential whistle that sent everyone to the locker room for half-time, Inter’s defense went through a few moments of apprehension unjustified by Monza’s consistency: dangerous amnesia if projected onto challenges that will quickly become more convincing.
The Brianza players came to San Siro in such a reworked version as to suggest prudence in any judgement: the technical and physical gap is too wide. To find the nitpick, a few too many heartbeats were given by Martinez (Joseph) who risked scoring himself on one occasion and was accompanied by a worried sigh from the people on another: Sommer was a guarantee with his feet, he will have to get used to improving his technique and confidence.
