Manchester City stumbled in their Champions League opener against Inter, who were an insurmountable wall for Guardiola’s team. Neither from below nor from above, the English team could overcome the resistance of the Italians. Gündogan had the chance to unbalance with two headers in stoppage time, but, despite his excellent position, one went into the goalkeeper’s hands and the last, already in the final seconds of the match, went high. That was when City exhausted their gunpowder.
The filmmaker Gonzalo Suárez financed his first film, Ditirambo, with the money he received from Inter for the reports he wrote for Helenio Herrera, the coach, his mother’s partner and the person who introduced the catenaccio to the Milanese team. If they were left in some file cabinet, they could have been useful to Inzaghi when facing City, because, after all, the way the modern Inter team played at the Etihad Stadium was no different to that of the Inter team that won two European Cups in the 1960s.
It was about being patient, putting up a wall, driving the English to despair and then running. Haaland was isolated, without contact with the ball, a man who turns every ball he touches into gold, the game swung from one side to the other, with Rodri distributing to the sides for Savinho or Grealish and De Bruyne desperate because he only saw legs in front and could not find the spaces towards Sommer’s goal.
The Milanese humbly accepted their role as an inferior team, or pretended to accept it with resignation, but they responded in the open field when Manchester City’s advanced lines lost possession of the ball. So, when Haaland shot in the middle of the woods, Thuram responded after a mistake by Rodri; when De Bruyne passed back, but no finisher was found, Carlos Augusto responded, already in added time, so that Ederson had to work low. By then, Guardiola was already starting to activate the first change for his team, because De Bruyne was limping after a clash with the Inter goalkeeper.
So after the break, Gündogan came on for the captain and the talented Foden replaced Savinho, looking for his qualities to benefit his team. But Inter continued in the same way, with their defence very deep but very organised, blocking City’s inside play, who tried not to lose their cool, moving the ball here and there, monopolising possession, but with one eye on their opponent’s very fast runs, who could have gone ahead on a counterattack in which Darmien faced Ederson, but he was overcome by vertigo and, instead of shooting, decided to touch back with his backheel for Secret Santa.
City persevered, the benches were moving and it was Foden who had the clearest chance when Gündogan slipped a ball through to him that left him alone on the penalty spot. His shot was blocked by Sommer. But every blow had a response. Mkhitaryan wasted another good counterattack with a shot high.
Inter’s resistance became overwhelming in the final minutes when they gave up their interest in deploying quickly. Not even with Lautaro Martínez, who appeared in the second half, did Inzaghi’s team dare to go on the counterattack. Already exhausted, after so many minutes of fighting, they relied on their ability to resist. Of course, City were not up to much running either, so with Gündogan’s two headers, which put the Italian bench on the verge of a heart attack, it was all over.
In the rest of the matchday, Sparta Prague beat Salzburg 3-0, Celtic mercilessly thrashed Slovan Bratislava 5-1 and Borussia Dortmund lived up to expectations by winning 0-3 at Club Brugge, with two goals from Bynoe Gittens and another from Guirassy. Meanwhile, Bologna and Shakhtar drew 0-0.
