[ad_1]
Inter left the Olympic Stadium in Kiev on Tuesday night not believing that they had only walked away with a goalless draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.
The Nerazzurri hit the crossbar twice, had a penalty claim rejected and saw Lautaro Martínez fail a nanny in Ukraine as they were limited to a second draw in as many games.
It leaves Antonio Conte’s team third in the standings behind Shakhtar and Borussia Moenchengladbach, as Real Madrid, also favorites, incredibly support Group B with just one point.
More than disgrace to blame
On another night, Inter would have returned to the west with three goals and three points in the bag, had it not been for Nicolo Barella’s early volley and Romelu Lukaku’s free kick that hit the crossbar. Lautaro Martinez, meanwhile, will play his terrible short-range foul on his mind for the next week.
Similarly, Lukaku had strong claims for a rejected spot kick after being dragged to the ground by Valeriy Bondar, but bad luck doesn’t tell the full story.
With Shakhtar struggling to find a rhythm after an early injury to striker Dentinho, Inter should have turned the screw and forced a path, but instead slowed down and allowed Shakhtar all the time in the world to reorganize. and hold at bay. .
After a dominant first half, the drop in pace and intensity was alarming and Inter’s failure to take the game by the nape ultimately cost them all three points.
The pressure is in Madrid
The fact that Inter failed to achieve a victory against the seemingly more manageable opponents in their group, namely Gladbach and Shakhtar, only adds to the pressure on their double header against Real Madrid, which begins in the Spanish capital.
While the whites were stunned in their own backyard by a Shakhtar team decimated by a COVID-19 outbreak, and were minutes away from losing to Gladbach, Zinedine Zidane’s team has the ability to punish Inter if they show the lack of cutting edge on display in Ukraine.
Losses to the Spanish champions could put the Nerazzurri’s ambitions on the line, and Conte can still regret not having scored more than two points in these early encounters.
Inter cannot blame bad luck for the slow start to the Champions League that first appeared on Forza Italian Football.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com
[ad_2]
