On Wednesday evening the San Siro hosted the first leg of the Champions League round of sixteen tie between Inter Milan and Liverpool.
Trailing Manchester City by nine points with a game in hand, catching up to the defending champions is a tough ask even for Jürgen Klopp’s men. Even with the League Cup final at Wembley around the corner, Liverpool’s full focus was Inter Milan away, which some called a tough draw for the last sixteen. Liverpool managing to win their last four knockout rounds against Italian teams, as well as the 2005 Champions League final against AC Milan, has showed Liverpool’s domination over the Italian teams in European competitions though.
Trailing city rivals AC Milan by one point in Serie A with a game in hand, Inter Milan’s chances at silverware don’t depend depend that crucially on their performances in the Champions League. Their first title-winning side since Jose Mourinho’s 2010 treble-winners, last year Antonio Conte’s men failed to get out of group stage. Nevertheless Inter’s last home defeat against an English side came over a decade ago, albeit falling to a Fernando Torres-inspired Liverpool.
Making two changes to the team that drew with Napoli away, Simone Inzaghi brought in Arturo Vidal for Nicolo Barella, suspended due to the red card he saw in the final group stage match at the Santiago Bernabeu, while the Italian also added the recovered Alessandro Bastoni at the expense of Federico Dimarco.
Klopp made four changes to the team that beat Burnley 1-0 away. He brought in Ibrahima Konaté at the expense of Joël Matip; Jordan Henderson, who was substituted in that game with a gashed leg, dropped to the bench with his midfield partner Naby Keïta for the services of Thiago Alcântara and 18 year-old Harvey Elliott making his European debut. Finally, Roberto Firmino made way for in-form Diogo Jota.
Able to match one-for-one with the Liverpool line-up shape-wise, Inter played a high line of defence. Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko stopped the Liverpool centre-backs from playing free balls into midfield or beyond; Ivan Perisic and Denzel Dumfries pressed high and pinned down Liverpool’s full-backs in their half of the pitch; Marcelo Brozovic, Arturo Vidal and Hakan Çalhanoğlu marked Fabinho, Thiago and Elliott respectively, while the Inter backline successful shadowed the Liverpool forwards dropping deep. Inter managed to disrupt Liverpool playing out and forced them into long balls. Stefan De Vrij, Milan Skriniar and Bastoni’s success in aerial duels brought the ball to Inter over and over again and the Nerazzurri made their presence felt, proving that there were indeed more favourable draws for Liverpool in the Round of 16.
Just five minutes in, the high pressure of Inter won the ball in Liverpool’s defensive third and Martinez shot with the spoils of the turnover, seeing his shot go just wide of the post.
In the 14th minute Sadio Mané got to the end of Andrew Robertson’s cross from a free-kick at the far post, but saw his header go just above the goal, not being able to capitalise on a decent chance.
With Liverpool not being able to build from the back properly, their long balls were chased by their forwards as always, which could create a tough situation to handle for Inter Milan. With the help of Brozovic’s capability to play very deep in the build-up, Inter Milan used their wing-backs to pin Liverpool’s relentless pressing full-backs in their own half, constantly seeking to expose the areas behind the full-backs, especially on the left, where Perisic matched up against Trent Alexander-Arnold.
With Brozovic acting as a third centre-back to help play out, Inter had one of the wide centre-backs – either Bastoni or Skriniar – pull wide to push the respective side’s wing-back higher up the pitch.
With these methods and occasionally with long balls, Inzaghi’s men were able to beat Liverpool’s high intensity press most of the time. In the sixteenth minute, Inter were able to get out of their own half via a long ball. Eventually Dumfries played a perfect switch of play to Perisic, who found Çalhanoğlu entering the box, but the Turkish International cannoned the ball off the crossbar from the left side of the goal.
Seven minutes later Robertson’s cross from a corner was flicked on by Konaté, and Mane’s sensational attempt at an overhead kick hit the side netting.
The remainder of the first half didn’t bring any significant action for either team, where they failed to register a single shot on target.
At the start of the second half, Klopp introduced Roberto Firmino for Jota, who was injured with a twisted ankle. The first fifteen minutes of the second half was under Inter’s control. Inzaghi’s men pressured and pinned Liverpool down in their half of the pitch, where they pressured and recycled the ball once it was won.
In the 53rd minute another Dumfries switch saw Perisic isolate Alexander-Arnold again. The Croatian controlled perfectly and entered the box, where his whipped far post cross was aimed for Martinez to tap in, but the Argentinian wasn’t able to get to it. After clearing the box at the expense of a corner, Virgil van Dijk’s shouting to Liverpool’s right flank was a sign of how they were being overrun.
Able to somehow calm the storm, Klopp realised fresh legs were needed and introduced Jordan Henderson, Naby Keta and Luis Diaz all at once in the 59th minute, taking off Fabinho, Elliott and Mané. Diaz was able to score in this stadium during the group stage of this Champions League campaign with his old team Porto, albeit against AC rather than Inter Milan.
The fresh legs started to do the trick for Liverpool. In the 63rd minute, on a Liverpool counter-attack, Diaz completed a give-and-go with Alexander-Arnold then found himself in the Nerazzurri’s box, his 8-yard shot blocked by an amazing last ditch move by Skriniar.
With Liverpool able to maintain their high tempo with the help of their substitutions and the disappointment of their most fruitful run in the game not turning into an end product, Inter started to lose intensity. With the individual skills of substituted players and Inter’s centre-backs no longer following Liverpool’s forwards when they dropped deeper, Liverpool could play more freely and had good spells over the course of the game.
In the 70th minute, Inzaghi made his first involvement in the game when he took off Martinez for Alexis Sanchez, increasing the pressing intensity of the frontline. Just one minute later, Vidal played a ball to zeko, who ran in behind the defence. Alexander-Arnold caught up with the Bosnian and was able to block the pass to Sanchez at the expense of a corner kick, and Çalhanoğlu’s corner was turned goal-side by the free Dumfries, who put the ball just above the goal, failing to convert a decent chance.
Finally Inter’s inability to make the most of their chances came back to haunt them. Substitute Firmino scored his eighth of the season in all competitions, brilliantly heading home Alexander-Arnold’s corner at the near post, sending it inside the opposite corner.
James Pearce from The Athletic reported that the sequence that led to Firmino’s goal was rehearsed during Tuesday’s training before the game. Liverpool lead the Premier League in goals from set-pieces with 14, and this was the fifth game in a row where they broke the deadlock with the help of a set piece. They also have five set-piece goals in seven games in the Champions League.
In the 80th minute Sanchez wanted to play in Dzeko around the Liverpool box, but it was intercepted by the brilliantly-performing Konaté. The spills of that interception were turned into a shot by Perisic from the edge of the box, but the Nerazzurri again failed to produce a shot on target.
Just three minutes later, this time not the set piece itself, but the recycled ball produced another end product for Liverpool, when Alexander-Arnold’s cross from the return ball was headed down by Van Dijk. Mohamed Salah hit low and unconvincingly but he managed to catch Samir Handanovic wrong-footed with the box being so crowded, putting Liverpool two goals up.
The remainder of the game didn’t bring about any significant events other than James Milner taking Thiago’s place to make his 800th career appearance, while Inzaghi put on Roberto Gagliardini, Matteo Darmian and Andrea Ranocchia at the expense of Vidal, Dumfries and De Vrij. The last change of the game came again from Inzaghi, taking off Bastoni for Federico Dimarco.
With away goals rule no longer in play, Inter are in a comparably better position than they would have been previously, but it leaves them with a lot of digging in to do at Anfield – a really tough ask for any team in the world.
Barely getting close tot heir best selves, Liverpool were able to win with a convincing scoreline thanks to their team’s unshakable structure and some brilliant individual performances. Inter were able to carry the ball into the Liverpool half for the bigger parts of the game, but they were never able to force Alisson into making a single save. The defensive masterclass put on by the Konaté and Van Dijk ultimately kept Liverpool in the game, and Klopp’s brave triple substitution won the game for them.
Henderson – despite playing only 31 minutes – completed 40 passes with an accuracy of 91% compared to Thiago’s 30 and Fabinho’s 19, while Keïta completed 26 of his 28 pass attempts after being brought on.
With the second leg still to come at Anfield, Liverpool have one leg in the quarter-finals. Inter showed the whole world that they aren’t pushovers in any context, but their place in the quarter-finals is an even longer shot than it was before.
You can follow Görkem on Twitter.
If you enjoy these posts, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a one-off donation. For just €2.99, you can get access to premium videos and training sessions.
No responses yet