On a night where only a victory was acceptable, Inter would take all three points. The final score 2-1 against Spezia and Inter now making it 6 wins on the trot.
Statistically the game looked much closer, but it was Inter who really had the best of the goal scoring chances. Another match where wasted opportunities almost came back to haunt the home side, but a win is a win.
Inter still sitting one point behind league leaders Milan.
Let’s jump into some key points from the match.
Hakimi Lamborghini is back –
Arguably Inter’s best player tonight. Scored a superb goal, ran his butt off for 80′ minutes and showed that fighting spirit we knew he had.
The link up play from Lukaku to Martinez, then the through ball to Hakimi was absolute perfection. Hakimi’s speed and excellent first touch set up the opportunity, and the finish was exceptional. Beating the keeper on his near post with pure power.
There was a couple of times when Hakimi lost his man in defence, but his speed and ability to recover put him in good stead to make a late challenge. On one occasion in particular, Hakimi was able to shut down a fantastic opportunity to Spezia with a last ditch slide tackle sending the ball out for a corner.
Inter’s lucky charm –
In Inter’s last 3 matches we have seen no first half goals. To be honest, Inter has played pretty poorly but somehow still finding a way to grab the three points.
With the injection of Stefano Sensi onto the pitch against Cagliari, Napoli and Spezia, we have seen Inter score six goals. When Sensi has not been on the pitch for the last 3 matches, there has been zero Inter goals scored.
It’s a pretty insane thought that Inter’s attack only sparks and comes together when Sensi takes the field. This was certainly the case last season when Inter were on 34 points at this stage from a possible 39 points.
It’s been said time and time again, but if Sensi stays fit for the remainder of the season, this Inter team wins the Scudetto and wins it pretty comfortably.
Defence is so crucial –
If you look at Inter’s first four league games, there were 8 goals conceded. In the next nine league games, we would see Inter only concede 8 goals too. After picking up 7 from 12 points in the first four games, Inter have now picked up 23 from 27 points on offer from the next nine games.
What happened in those first four games compared to the last nine? Well, Skriniar, De Vrij and Bastoni weren’t there.
It just shows how important to a campaign a solid defensive unit is. Without the combination of Skriniar, De Vrij and Bastoni it wouldn’t be possible for Inter to compete. It would be unfair to involve Ranocchia and Kolarov into the same conversation as the trio mentioned earlier.
Where to next?
Inter will travel away to play against Hellas Verona. Typically this fixture always ends in a lot of goals. Of the past 8 meetings there have been 27 goals, so from a neutral perspective we should see a pretty entertaining game.
Fingers crossed the Nerazzurri can make it 7 wins in a row!
