He believed in it and this was already a great merit. At one point she also hoped for it and no one would have bet on it on the eve. A’Inter courageous, strong-willed, lucky (the opponents still hit three woods), at times even beautiful, in the end almost touching, she wins Anfield Road 1-0. He beats a formidable team, superior in all fundamentals to the Nerazzurri, with whom even tonight we saw an abysmal difference from a technical and physical point of view. But that’s not enough.
The Nerazzurri’s dream didn’t last 90 minutes, but only one. The one between the goal of Lautaroa marvel at the crossroads, finally living up to what is expected of the Argentine, and the expulsion of Sanchez, a double admonition fruit of generosity, rather than guilt. For those 60 seconds, more than for the rest of the first leg and return of this double challenge, Inter perhaps really thought they could eliminate the Liverpool, and perhaps Liverpool were a little afraid. But it didn’t last long.
Before and after those episodes, we saw more or less the same movie as the first leg. A brilliant, determined Inter and a stronger Liverpool, capable of controlling without suffering. The Nerazzurri cannot blame themselves for anything today. They did everything they could, perhaps even more, against a Liverpool perhaps satisfied by the 2-0 of the first leg, Anfield a little less fiery. As long as the team of Inzaghi he was not afraid to play the ball from behind, after all he has nothing to lose. Exits of the highest quality from the defense, pressing. Sanchez, preferred to Dzeko, cross and delight of the evening: electric, cuts and sews, up to the red card that will close the race. Only the embroidery is missing.
After the initial twenty minutes of a very high level, Inter did not create a real opportunity. Which instead succeeds with ease at Liverpool, relying on his excessive physical power on set pieces that had already been decisive in the first leg, and this time it produces “only” a crossing of the posts hit by the head Matip. Even Inter’s best chance in the first half is a poisonous free-kick kicked by Calhanoglu. It seems too little to prove the feat. The more time passes, the higher Liverpool, the more hopes drop. Wrong it hits the pole without fail. Yet Inter still finds the strength to reopen a qualification discourse that seemed closed. With him the most representative, most criticized, most awaited man: Lautaro Martinez, who first wastes an easy goal in the middle of the area, then scores a sensational one, from outside the area, from outside the area, at the intersection.
The crack, however, closes immediately. What betrays Inter is the desire for him, and that of his better man than him, Sanchez, who by dint of pressing and recovering the ball, already warned, overwhelms Fabinho and remedies the second yellow. At that point a goal is missing, but above all a man. If he ever shook a second, the battleship’s clop he reorganizes himself, takes the ball and never gives up. The final twenty minutes could have been an Inter siege and instead become an English monologue. Salah hits a post (third of the evening), Vidal save on the line, Inter resisted with courage but should have scored. Doing it one more time outnumbered is impossible. The compliments remain, the awareness of a great European race, perhaps a hint of regret for those ten minutes of skidding in the first leg that compromised this Champions. The championship remains, to think about again from tomorrow.