And we are back

After 19 days without Inter (last game was on nov 2nd, home win againt Lille for the Champions League), we finally see some black and blue action again.

This long period of absence allowed some of our injured players to get back: Julione, Coutinho, Ranocchia and Poli (the two last after some reasonable time away from the fields). On the infirmary remain Nagatomo, Lucio and Maicon (who should come back soon), Forlan (apparently on a long recovery), Viviano (who should be traded for Kucka) and Muntari (I don't really care as long as he's fit to be sold on the next Mercato). 

Also Sneijder missed the game because he got injured during warm-up, which is kinda the opposite as how warm-up should work. According to the broadcasting team, this is the 4th injury pickep-up by Inter players during warm-up this season. So I really hope on the next mercato we'll buy a new midfielder and one or two doctors. Maybe even a physiotherapist if we sell Muntari. Or Zanetti could also play in the doctor position as he has proven able to multitask.

"He's still breathing! Now come back here and lets win this game!"

Enough whining, the starting formation was:

G: Julione

D: Jonathan, Rannochia, Samuel and Zanetti

M: Cambiasso, Deki, Thiago Motta and Coutinho

A: Zarate and Pazzo

The starting defense was really the only option for Ranieri, as we did not only had Lucio, Maicon and Nagatomo injured but also Chivu suspended. Regardless, this defensive formation proved quite good, with Rannochia well recovered, Zanetti doing an excellent job and Jonathan did not let us down (remember he is the 4th or 5th option for his position). When all players are avaiable again (if that ever happens), there will be heavy competition for his place between Chivu, Jonathan, Nagatomo and Zanetti (I hope for the last).

For the midfield, apart from Coutinho, we did not see anything unusual. Zarate + Pazzo up front is the best possible at this moment but the midfield doesn't get any older than Cambi + Deki + Motta. 

At the end of the first, the scoreboard still read 0:0. The defense proved quite solid, the midfield was falling appart and Zarate and Pazzini put one shot at the bar each. In the second half, Zarate was replaced by Alvarez and much to my surprise I saw Inter applying pressure on the midfield and stealing the ball, something rarely seen these days. The first goal came after Alvarez free kick and an offside Motta shot. After some good plays by Coutinho and Alvarez, one finally net us our second goal, in a shot outside the area. The goal from Cagliari came at the 89th minute. Obi replaced Coutinho at 68' and Faraoni in his serie A debut for Jonathan at 87'.

More complete (and better) match reports can be read on goal.com or inter.it. Frisko from Forza Inter Forums posted some very nice photos of the match on his tumblr and we also have some other on inter.it. And the highligths of the match:

Overall, a decent game with some good Inter action in the midfield when we had 5 players cramped in there. No injuries sustained, some playing time for Coutinho and Alvarez (ok, five minutes for Faraoni), three points in serie A and some improvement in the field; exactly what I had been hoping in these last 17 days.

Ps.: while I was writing this, we had two ties with no goals in the other Saturday's matches:  Fiorentina x Milan and Napoli x Lazio. I could not dream of better results as I feel Milan and Napoli are the big contenders for the Scudetto. Lots of pressure from Milan on the last five minutes but Viola did not concede any goal.

Our next matches are:

Champions League: Trabzonspor x Inter on Nov 22nd.

Here we don't really need to win as we have a clear lead on our group as seen below. I'd value more playing time for the younger than a win but nevertheless this should be an "easy" game. As Sneijder is injured, we should see at least Coutinho or Alvarez playing.

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html

Serie A: Siena x Inter on Nov 27th.

We want three points. Period.

FORZA INTER!