Inter back in 2nd with a 2-1 win over Lazio

Happy Easter to all Interista, and to make the weekend more special Inter managed to claim all three points from Lazio even though we were down to 10 men with goals coming from Sneijder's 4th of the season and Eto'os 33rd. The downside is after Julio Cesar's red card it means we are without our first choice keeper for the next game on the bright side its against Cesena. The other piece of bad news is that Stankovic had to go off with an injury. Milan beat Brescia with a late goal to put them back to 8 points ahead though with Palermo beating Napoli we have gone above them to reclaim 2nd place, which if we end up finish there I will be happy considering the bad season we've had.

Inter v Lazio Match Preview

Inter go into today's game against Lazio 8 points behind Milan with 5 games including this one to go and the odds are severely stacked against us for the Scudetto but we are not giving up without a fight and anything is possible as Lazio themselves proved years ago when they made up 9 points in the last 5 games to take the title.  For us to stand a chance though we must win every game to come and hope Milan make a mess of their run in! Even if we don't catch Milan we have still got a fight on our hands as we could finish anywhere from 2nd down to 4th or 5th if we're not careful and a win for Lazio today would put them on the same points as us so this definitely is a must win for us as an in form Udinese are only 4 points behind going in to this weekend.

Latest Inter Transfer Rumours, Leonardo To Stay & Mourinho says 'His Team' Needs Rebuilding

With the end of what i like to think of as Inter's hangover season in sight (Thank God!!!) the rumours of changes of management and players are coming thick and fast for our beloved Nerazzurri, with most of the footballing world agreeing that Inter needs some big changes to stay up there with the likes of Barcelona.  Of course a lot can change before the start of next season but there are some rumours that just don't seem to go away so i thought i'd share the latest versions of these stories with you all and start the excitement for next season early!

Coppa Italia 1st Leg Roma 0-1 Inter Match Report & Reactions

Inter finally got the result they needed after 5 losses in a row, which puts them in a strong position to progress to the final after the second leg at the Guiseppe Meazza on the 11th May. Dejan Stankovic was the man to get the goal for the Nerazzurri with another superb long range effort from outside the box on the stroke of half time, this was in fact his 2nd goal of the game after his first got ruled out by a questionable refereeing decisions in the opening minutes. Both sides had their chances in the second half but the scoreline of 0-1 stayed the same. Inter looked by far the stronger side throughout the game but even saying that they were still no where near the level we know they are capable of, this win should however give them the confidence to finish the season on a good note, hopefully!!! My one criticism of the match was the fact that Leonardo paired Milito up front with Pandev instead of Pazzini the subbed Milito for Pazzini which is a shame as i was looking forward to seeing how Milito & Pazzini would play together but to be fair Pandev had a good game, he didn't score or have any particularly good shots on the goal but he did work hard bringing the ball into attack.

Roma v Inter Coppa Italia Semi Final Leg 1 Preview

The Coppa Italia semi final 1st leg against Roma is tonight and the reality of the situation is that this is Inter's last chance of silverware this season (Not including the Supercup & World cup) unless a miracle occurs in the Scudetto.  So what are our chances of beating Roma across the two legs?  Well we've been really out of form since our defeat in the derby which isn't being helped by the fact Leonardo doesn't see anything wrong with how his tactics are affecting the team, there are rumours going around that tonight is Leo's last chance and Baresi is waiting to take over until the end of the season if he does get the boot, but i'm not going to go on about Leo anymore as i don't like to be negative about anything to do with my beloved Inter.  The important thing is that Inter perform without dwelling on recent bad results and Roma have had a bad season too sitting down in 6th just 1 point above Juve, so on that Inter hasn't had that bad a season really! It also means we have got a very good chance of knocking them out of the cup, especially as we have got Maicon back in the squad the bad news though is that Eto'o is out for tonights match with a foot injury, hopefully though this will give Milito & Pazzini a chance to get the goals and be Nerazzurri's heroes tonight.

Parma v Inter match report & reactions

This really is getting beyond a joke now, as Inter wrote off pretty much any chance they had for the Scudetto this season and the 2-0 defeat to Parma puts the Nerazzurri a huge 8 points behind Milan with 5 games to go. As always I'm right behind Inter but unless Milan mess up 3 of the last 5 games, which isn't very likely, Inter's only remaining chance of silverware this season depends on the Coppa Italia semi finals against Roma. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the match but from what I've heard and read I'm glad I didn't see it, but from what I can tell it is down to two factors firstly Leonardo's crap tactics including his insistence of playing Pandev & Chivu and starting Sneijder on the bench while leaving Maicon out of the squad completely?!? The second I can only assume is down to frustrations of the recent bad results coming through in the players performances. Anyway here's the match report and what Leonardo & co had to say....

Parma v Inter Match Preview

It's been a tough week for Inter with our departure from the Champions league on Wednesday, but today we face our next challenge against Parma at the Stadio Tardini where we must win to keep up any chance of winning the Scudetto which as we know is almost as much of an unlikely result as beating Shalke was mid week but there's still the chance as Milan are only 5 points ahead which means they only have to mess up twice in the last 6 games for us to overtake them, presuming we win! It's a long shot but as Stankovic proved the other week long shots sometimes go your way!

My suggestions for the rebuilding of Inter Milan

After getting knocked out of the Champions league quarter finals by such an overwhelming scoreline many people (myself included) have been suggesting that Inter needs a major shake up of the squad and the way we do things, so I thought I'd write this post to share with you all what I consider to be a suitable solution to our problems ( Be warned some of my suggestions may be highly controversial amongst my fellow Interista)......

Shalke 2-1 Inter (Agg 7-3) Champions league quarter final match report & reactions

That's it the reigning champions are out of the competition after an embarrassing 7-3 agg defeat to Shalke, obviously the worst of the damage was done in the 1st leg but even after all the talk from the Inter camp about believing in being able to turn it around on the night only a handful of Inter players looked like they had the passion to win, yes we had the majority of possession and our passing was good but there was no creativity and there was a definite spark missing from our finishing our only goal of the game was more fluke than intention when Motta managed to get a touch that bounced into the net. The most impressive Inter player again for me was Yuto Nagatomo who never gave up and put 110% in to trying to create something for the Nerazzurri. So who's to blame? .......

Shalke v Inter Preview Champions league quarter final 2nd leg

Here we are just a few hours from the 2nd leg of the Champions league quarter finals against Shalke, (cue the Mission Impossible music) and already most people have written off our chances of progressing to the semis but is it really that impossible for Inter to pull off the comeback again in Germany?  Everyone at Inter and all us Nerazzurri faithful don't seem to think so, i mean if they can score 5 against us in the 1st leg then why should it be so unlikely that we can get 4 tonight?  As long as Leonardo puts a bit of emphasis and pace in the defense like he did against Chievo last weekend there's no reason why we can't show the Germans the door, and as an extra boost for Inter Walter Samuel is in the squad for the first time since his injury in November, though i really think Leonardo shouldn't play him in this match and risk him, that said i don't see anything wrong with putting him on for the last 10 minutes just to get him some competitive match practice.

Inter 1-1 Roma (Agg 2-1) Coppa Italia Semi Final 2nd Leg

Not only did Inter ensure they made it to the the Final of the Coppa Italia against Palermo but Javier Zanetti played his 1000th career game.  It was a good game with Inter looking fairly lively throughout but still lacking something up front with Sneijder still out injured and Eto'o spending most of the game tracking back and covering the left wing, he did however secure his 35th goal of the season and ensured the Nerazzurri got through to the final with a 2-1 agg win

Inter 2-0 Chievo match report & reactions

That's more like it, even though they weren't at their very best yesterday Inter showed a lot more quality than the have for the last two games with a couple of players really standing out, the first was Zanetti who was playing on the right of the 3 man midfield, his speed, passes & runs were outstanding and watching him last night you would never guess he was 37. The other was Yuto Nagatomo who for me was the man of the match was just everywhere defending, poaching balls and making blistering runs up the left wing and also getting a few shots off on goal, I've said it before but this guy has got a really bright future and he reminds me alot of the legendary Roberto Carlos which is exactly the type of player Inter needs. As rumours have suggested this week I think Moratti has got some big changes in mind for next season as all the way through the match he looked less than impressed! But tonight's result went the right way and that's all that matters for now.

Inter v Chievo Preview

So here we are ready for today's game against Chievo which comes at the end of an awful week for the Nerazzurri. On the bright side this is a match that shouldn't cause us too much trouble, of course from now on we must win every Serie A game to stand any chance of making up the 5 point difference with Milan but we know Inter will fight with everything they have got to snatch the title back allwe need is a little luck for Milan & Napoli to slip up a few times between now and the end of the season.

The case against Leonardo The "Tactically Inept" Manager

Yesterday Leonardo was defended by Zanetti, Cambiasso & Moratti who all claim that Leonardo is the right man for the Job and is capable of leading Inter to success, This is ironic really as this is the only time he's managed to get players to defend for him!  Unfortunately for Leonardo though they said similar things about Benitez just before he was shown the door and Moratti can't have that much faith in him if the rumours that he's in talks with Barcelona's Guardiola are true, maybe it's time for Leo to face facts that he's better suited as a coach and not a manager because as the report from the Football Italiano site below shows this is not a new problem for the Brazilian.

Inter v Shalke match report & reactions

What can i say about last nights Champions league quarter final first leg tie against Shalke?  Well let's start with the positives, firstly Milito is back in the starting line up and scored for us and second is Stankovic's wonder goal from 40 yards out in the first 25 seconds of the match (if you missed it see the video above)  Unfortunately that was as good as it got for Inter as the two goals we got during the first half were cancelled out by two goals for Shalke before half time, after half time things went from bad to worse for the Nerazzurri and in a similar style to the derby defeat at the weekend, Shalke managed to make us look like complete amatuers instead of world champions and for the second game in a row Chivu saw a red card yet again weakening our already shaky backline, which was also suffered the blow of an own goal by Ranocchia.  So after another terrible performance by Inter the game ended 2-5 to Shalke meaning that Inter need at least 4 goals on the return leg meaning the mighty Nerazzurri are effectively out of the running for making it through to the semi's. 

So who's to blame? The official verdict from Inter's camp is that the players are fatigued which i can understand after last years amazing run and the world cup followed by loads of injuries and the ridiculous amount of matches played in 2011 so far, but with the squad Inter has at it's disposal that excuse only goes so far to explain this awful week.  The true reason in my opinion is the management as we know the first half of the season was destroyed by Benitez who couldn't organise a pub team let alone anything else then things looked better when Leonardo took over at Christmas but over the last month or so it is becoming more apparent that his tactics only favour an attacking mentality and he seems to give no thought to the defensive side of the team and considering how strong our defense was last season there is no excuse for this and as much as i hate to say it come the end of the season he has to go to be replaced with a manager that can balance the team properley.

Inter v Shalke Champions league quarter final preview

Well after the farce that was the derby on Saturday let's hope that Inter pull themselves together and sort out their defensive strategy for their Champions league quarter final match tonight against Shalke, i've said it alot this season that Inter's defense without Walter Samuel is dodgy at best.  Our other defenders like Lucio & Ranocchia on paper should be more than capable of stopping most attackers but the all out attack mentality that Leonardo has brought to the Inter team means there isn't sufficient cover at the back and small mistakes are becoming very costly.

As far as Shalke goes we have got a slight advantage that they have recently changed their manager though we still need to be careful as this is the Champions league quarter final and every team at this stage have proved they are worthy of being there, the biggest threat posed to Inter will be Shalke's Raul who has got a huge amount of Champions league experience with his former team Real Madrid and everyone knows he is capable of scoring plenty of goals but if Inter can perform the way we know they can then this should be a fairly easy game for us.

AC Milan v Inter match review & reactions

Last night the derby didn't go according to plan for the Nerazzurri, the match started badly when straight from the kick off Inter were caught sleeping as Milan flew out of the starting blocks and Pato hit the back of the net in just 45 seconds. After that Inter took about 30 minutes to start looking like they could reply but it wasn't meant to be as in the second half Chivu got a red card after which Milan seemed to run rings around Inter which was shown when Pato netted his second, the kick in the teeth really came on 88 minutes when Zanetti gave away a penalty that Cassano put away finishing the game 3-0. All in all it was a terrible match for Inter with Sneijder & Eto'o hardly affecting the game, there were two positives though firstly Julio Cesar had a great game and was Inter's man of the match for me as if it wasn't for him it could have easily been 6-0 to Milan. The second is that the Guiseppe Meazza pitch looked much better after being returfed.

AC Milan v Inter Preview

Well here we are on the eve of the Milan derby after the International break which saw 13 Nerazzurri players representing their countries.  As you know the derby is always an important match for both Milanese teams but this one is set to be extra special as a win for the Nerazzurri will put them a point above Milan with only seven games remaining in the season.  Over the last month many have tryed to tell us that the result of this match won't be decisive to the race for the Scudetto, this i feel has been said to releive some of the pressure by not putting to much emphasis on needing the result from this match, but we all know that even though it won't guarantee the title for either side it will give the winning side a major boost and i wouldn't be suprised if the winner of this match goes on to claim the title.