Inter Milan 2-1 Chelsea: A good or bad result?

On paper coming away from giuseppe meazza in the 1st leg in Italy with an away goal losing 2-1 isn't such a bad result. Dominating possession, having over twice the amount of attempts on goal than they did, restricting Inter to just a couple of chances sand being denied a stone-wall penalty sounds like a good performance without the luck you need in this competition. So why have I woken up this morning still feeling as though I can't decide if its a good or bad result.

The Goals.



1-0. Milito.
Sloppy to say the least. As pointed out earlier this week in my Video analysis Milito likes to make a run across the back four to create space for himself. He prefers to get the ball on the left of the box and cut back inside onto his right foot. I said it was a danger and I was sorry to say I was right. But its really sloppy because if you watch the video, Eto'o comes deep to get the ball and Riccy Carvalho follow's him, he gets sucked out of position and as a result JT is caught out one on one for the goal.





1-1 Kalou.
Fantastic play by Ivanovic and a well taken goal from Kalou. As stated their back four drop deep when their midfield gets caught out. Watch Thiago Motto number 8, he has no intention of tracking back with intent to close Ivanovic down. As a result Ivanovic is allowed to bring the ball forward from inside his own half and across the back four before laying the ball off to Kalou.





2-1 Cambiasso.
Now this is the one where no one has picked up on. Look at the photo at the top of this post and Ivanovic's face. Now watch the goal again. Cambiasso has a stroke of luck as his first effort smacks Ivanovic straight between the legs. Ivanovic is bent over in pain and as the ball comes back to Cambiasso and he hits it, Ivanovic doesn't make a proper block because he is still in pain so makes a half hearted attempt to block the shot. The ball goes through him and into the corner. Good strike you have to say, but we were unlucky that Ivanovic couldn't get there to make a proper challenge/block to the second attempt.

Player Performances.

I was surprised, probably like most of you, when I saw that Malouda would be playing at left back and Kalou was brought into the side. I thought that Joe Cole would of maybe got a run. But to his credit Kalou played well. Malouda was a revelation down our left hand side but wasn't really tested at the back until Balotelli came on. Ivanovic also had a great game down the right.

JT and Riccy, apart from the first goal were calm and assured and restricted Eto'o to one mis-hit he should of punished us with but nothing more and Milito to nothing after he scored his goal.

I thought Didier did ok, started off well but drifted out of the game as Lucio played like a man possessed. Maybe the physical marking and attention of Walter Samuel got to him at times as he did drift out of the game.

Lampard wasn't his usual self, probably because of the Viral infection he was sufffering with. Did have one chance though from a pull back by Anelka and the keeper made the save.

Anelka was awful. Again he can't play where Ancelotti is asking him to and it became very evident last night. Alot of the time in the game he wanted to bring the ball back inside, into a crowded midfield and our possession broke down. Gesturing with his arms being frustrated for most of the game.

I thought that Mikel and Ballack were solid throughout and played well. Wesley Sneijder and Stankovic hardly featured in the second half for Inter which says alot for the way our midfield played.

The Managers.

Jose got it tactically sound last night by playing his 4-3-1-2 formation. The 3 in midfield had no intention of getting forward much during the game but remained as a wall in front of their back four. Milto and Eto'o dragged JT and Riccy all over the place in the first half which allowed Sneijder to run into the space. Jose's substitutions to change the formation around early in the second half to go with a 4-3-3 and then to change back to a 4-5-1 stifled us and saw out the game.

Carlo's decision to go with Kalou was justified as he played the best I have seen him play in a while. He scored and should of had the clearest of penalties you will ever see given but was denied. He did however get it wrong when he brought Kalou off for Sturridge?. Should of been Anelka for Joe Cole. Its not Sturridge's fault at all but did not have any impact of the game whereas Joe Cole could of provided us with natural width.

Our formation looked like a 4-3-3 which would of posed Inter problems as they struggled to cope when we did get it wide. Ivanovic and Malouda had loads of time and space which we should of utilised more often rather than keep playing through the middle all the time. With Inter's three man midfield in front of their back four, our formation of 4-3-2-1 played into their hands. Anelka suffered big time and I don't remember seeing him attack Zanetti much down the wing. Anelka's pace from a standing start would of caused old man Zanetti all sorts of problems but it never happened. So Carlo got this one wrong.

Overall.

It is a good resullt purely because of the away goal. Once more I have every confidence that we will score at the Bridge in three weeks time. Jose will come to the Bridge and look to shut up shop and hit us on the counter attack. Did you notice there wasn't any counter attacking football last night? Do you remember a side counter attacking the other? Jose will set them up to once more stifle our passing game.

I am wondering about the result and have asked the question is it really or is it a bad result? I say a bad result as I know that our passing could of been so much better. We should of had a blatent penalty. It was disappointing that we didn't really create enough chances and our formation was wrong. We suffered a mjor blow in losing Cech to injury but Hilario had nothing to do when he came on so we weren't in any real trouble during he game at all. Two goals conceded a sloppy one and a unlucky one but as Jose said "That's Champions League football".

So I have to say overall I am pleased with the away goal but disappointed about the result. Its going to be hard to break them down at the Bridge, but remember a 1-0 will see us through!.

Chelsea(4-3-2-1): Cech (Hilario 60); Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry (c), Malouda; Ballack, Mikel, Lampard; Anelka, Kalou (Sturridge 77); Drogba.

Scorer Kalou 50.
Booked Kalou 22

Inter (4-3-1-2): Cesar; Maicon, Samuel, Lucio, Zanetti; Motta (Balotelli 57), Cambiasso, Stankovic (Muntari 83); Sneijder; Milito, Eto'o (Pandev 67).

Scorers Milito 2, Cambiasso 54.
Booked: Motta 8, Milito 22.

CAREFREE & KTBFFH EVERYONE!