Only City can snatch the Champions League from City

Only City can snatch the Champions League from City

Football in one match is another sport and Simone Inzaghi's Inter can dream if they can stay in the game until it hurts

With an explicit reference to one of the most significant maxims of José Mourinho's Inter two-year period, Federico Dimarco not only confirmed that he will be the most Nerazzurri player on the pitch on the night in Istanbul, but he involuntarily indicated what appears to be the only apparent point weak than an unbreakable battleship. "For us, winning this trophy is a dream, for Manchester City it's an obsession," he said, suddenly taking the Interisti back to 2010 and the nights they lived with the anxiety of not being able to overtake Barcelona: that time too, at the on the eve of a semifinal that really had the flavor of an anticipated final, Pep Guardiola was on the other side. What we have seen in action this year is a practically perfect creature, perhaps the most complete work of the Catalan genius, which required much more complex work than what was necessary to show us that unrepeatable Barcelona. The only rival of the City therefore seems to be the City itself: the obsession with victory on the part of the property, the coach and the players which becomes a risk, a threat, a slippery ground.

There don't seem to be any weaknesses in the English lineup. What was interpreted by many as a potential question mark at the beginning of the season, namely the coexistence between a coach who for years had preached the importance of space as a centre-forward, and the arrival of a colossus like Erling Haaland, has been reduced to nonsense in the short span of a few weeks: the question had no reason to exist. This is demonstrated not only by the frightening numbers of the Norwegian giant, but also by his ability to affect without scoring: he was left dry in the double challenge with Real Madrid, for example, yet City, in the second leg, gave the impression to be able to overflow minute after minute, forcing Courtois to one of the most incredible personal performances ever given by a goalkeeper in a similar scenario. Too bad for Real that it only served to avoid returning to Madrid with a scary deficit on a terrible night. The mere presence of Haaland alarms the defences, as if it were a pistol with a shot permanently in the chamber: the level of attention cannot decrease and this only gives space to all the others, from Bernardo Silva to De Bruyne, from Gundogan to a Grealish who went from insolent to an emblem of continuity within a year. It would also seem that one of Guardiola's historical defects has been overcome, that overthinking of which he has often been accused: the tendency to want to overdo it, to seek complex solutions at the least opportune moment, the desire to try to control even the uncontrollable. The new Guardiola seems more serene, more zen, less maniacal while remaining in search of a perfection that has never seemed as close as this time.

Inter will have to put into practice a game of resistance, to be understood not as defense to the bitter end, because it would be harmful, but as mental and even physical resistance: always being present, proposing oneself as far as possible, circumventing the traps that Guardiola and his boys they know how to disseminate in every corner of the field, even the less visible ones, and face the duels that Haaland will inevitably stage with the central players. A clean and thoughtful job in releasing the ball will be essential: the phase of reconquest of the City, if possible, is even more formidable than the one in which they are in control of the ball. Staying in the game, therefore, as long as it hurts, as long as there is, as Luciano Ligabue da Correggio, a hardcore Inter fan, suggested about thirty years ago, albeit with other horizons. Trying to eat up the opponent's minutes will serve to erode their certainties, to fuel doubts, to macerate that obsession that City carries with them due to the weight of a forecast that has rarely seemed so unbalanced on the eve of a Champions League final. Inzaghi will have to remind his followers that football in a one-off match is almost another sport and that turnarounds also existed in matches of this kind, just think of Lippi's Juventus which was slapped by the Dortmund of a crepuscular Kalle Riedle or the stoic resistance of Chelsea in the Bayern Munich den, with Drogba star performer on the pitch and Roberto Di Matteo on the bench: germinating the seed of doubt is the way forward.

In the very fresh FA Cup final, Manchester United tried to hold on to the match with their nails, caging Haaland within the limits of the allowed and ending up, almost physiologically, exposed to Gundogan's razors. In a more even-than-expected endgame, Ten Hag's side came close to equalizing with a furious scramble from a set-piece. Another invaluable indication for Inzaghi and his staff, who have been able to make the most of dead balls since the beginning of the year. The finals are also resolved with the details and the matches, even the most painful, can turn with a goal: from the aforementioned Chelsea 2012, capable of converting the only corner scored into a goal with Drogba on an evening in which Bayern had kicked 20, to the unrepeatable double strike of Manchester United, again against the Bavarians, in the recovery of the 1999 final.

If Inter manage to play freely, to dirty the game a bit, to make it muddy, then they will be able to give themselves a chance, bringing City onto terrain that they might find unpleasant. Once, speaking of Romario, Jorge Valdano said that football is above all deception: Lautaro and the others will also have to make them this maxim, letting the English feel sheltered from any threat and then try to hit them, knowing full well that it will be difficult . Whoever made the cards for this final, to quote the words of a Prince quite distant from the Argentine one who delivered the last Champions League to Inter's bulletin board, called City the winners. It will be up to Inter to try to tear him up with the imagination.



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