Inter and Porto’s sweet thinking, to forget the troubles of the league

Not even a day to despair. Less than fourteen hours have passed from the 2-0 defeat at the Stadium against Juventus to the extraction of Porto as an opponent in the second round of the Champions League. From the cold darkness of the Stadium to the warmth, under the sun of the Pinetina. Night and day, an image that well represents Inter’s differences in performance at the start of the season between the championship and what was once the Champions Cup. In Serie A, the Nerazzurri have lost direct clashes with Lazio, Milan, Udinese, Rome and Juventus. In the Champions League they beat the Barcelona of Pedri and Lewandowski. In Serie A they have never earned points from disadvantage situations. In the Champions League at the Camp Nou they recovered from the initial 1-0 to savore, up to the risk of winning. In Serie A after 13 games they are trudging to seventh place, 11 points behind the leaders Napoli. In the Champions League, after qualifying a day early, they are given as favorites by all the betting agencies for the passage to the quarterfinals, against a team that is in turn 8 points away from the top in its championship, dominated by Benfica.

Inzaghi: “The dream is to return to the quarters after a long time”

The distance between Inter’s domestic and European performances is difficult to justify, to the point that neither the CEO Beppe Marotta nor the coach Simone Inzaghi have so far managed to provide plausible explanations for this discrepancy in quality, determination and results between a tournament and the other. Preparing to face the team led by former Inter player Sergio Conceiçao, Simone Inzaghi commented: “For the second year in a row we will play the round of 16. Finally Inter are back to playing such important games in Europe with continuity. They will be two matches. beautiful, in two full stadiums and in front of a special audience, worthy of such an important competition. We respect Porto, they are a team that has been doing well in the Champions League for years. The coach has been my teammate at Lazio for years , I know him very well. Our goal is to pass the round and give our fans a dream: to play the Champions League quarterfinals after a long time. It will not be easy, we will have to work to be ready for a double challenge where the details will make the difference “.

The first at home, the second away

The only possible misfortune for Inter is the fact of having to play away from home the second match of the second round, the decisive one: the first leg will be at San Siro on 22 February, the return to theEstádio do Dragão on March 14th. In the league, far from the Meazza, the Nerazzurri have so far collected 16 goals, more than any other Serie A team. In the Champions League, in hindsight, the curse of the away match does not seem to hit them. In the group against Viktoria, in Plzen in the Czech Republic, they won 0-2. We have said about the match in Barcelona, ​​and the defeat in Munich says little for two reasons. The first: Bayern played on the other side of the field. The second: at the kick-off the games were already done, with the Bavarians mathematically first and the guests second. Even the very prudent Marotta a hot released a statement of relief for the Nyon draw: “On paper it could be favorable, but I have the utmost respect for Porto. They are an unpredictable team, especially for the fact that we will play the second leg from them. Beyond what today are the credentials of the day, then the field will be the judge “.

The favorable precedents for Inter

Two years ago it was Porto who threw Juve out of the Champions League in the round of 16 and the home factor had a weight, even numerically. The away goal rule was still in force, which is worth double in the event of an equal number of goals scored. In the first leg in Turin, Juve won 3-2, in the return the Portuguese won 2-1 and went through. As for the previous matches with Inter, the Lusitanian team met them four times, always in the Champions League and always in 2005, but in two different seasons. The first two matches, even then, were worth the move to the quarterfinals: 1-1 in Porto in the first leg in February, 3-1 in the return to Meazza in March, with a hat-trick from Adriano. Inter passed. Seven months later the two teams met in the group first in Portugal, and the hosts won 2-0, then in Milan, with a 2-1 win for the Nerazzurri. It is difficult to say if the Port of that time was stronger than that of today. Of course, this is no joke. Arrived first in its group – with 12 points, as many goals conceded and 7 conceded – Mehdi Taremi’s team in the last game beat Atletico Madrid, making them slide into the Europa League. A company, at least like that of Inter to the detriment of Boat.