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Photo by Alexander Prikhodko, UA-Football
The victory over Real Madrid in the first round raised the bar so much for Shakhtar’s expectations that the August 0-5 loss to Inter was not seen as a wake-up call ahead of another match with the Nerazzurri. Antonio Conte also said that it would be a different game. Inter have changed a bit, but Shakhtar is more interesting for us. Shakhtar does not dream of illusions, but plays according to his possibilities. With Luis Castro, the team does not disdain in the games against the most elegant opponents to defend with eleven players in their own half of the field. So it was in Madrid a week ago, so it was with Inter today.
The only difference is that Inter did not allow them to launch the counterattacks. During the first half, the Italians could have scored several goals. That there are at least two hits on the crossbar, after hits by Barella (second pace) and Lukaku (free kick). If in these episodes the Pitmen were lucky, in others Trubin rescued or the Inter players forgave. The first dangerous moment in goal for the young Shakhtar goalkeeper came out of nowhere, when Khocholava lost a fight for pole position to Lukaku. As they say, pushed.
There were many of those moments, when Shakhtar’s defenders were declassified by opponents, during the first half. Kornienko was losing ground on the flank, Dodo allowed the ball to be thrown between his legs, except that Bondar more or less kept his rod. Inter’s game was fraught with dangers. Lukaku, in addition to hitting the crossbar, challenged Trubin to a one-on-one duel twice, but lost twice. On the third attempt, the Belgian shot next to the counter, here the goalkeeper would not have saved.
If you add to this the shots of Lautaro Martínez and Ashraf Hakimi, you get football with the maximum use of the guests. And this is not an illusion. The “Shakhtar” in 45 minutes could only hit twice (Maicon and Antonio), without sharpness. Handanovich was saving himself from the cold with a warm-up, no save.
In the second half, Inter’s activity fell slightly. Conte’s sentries desperately needed a goal for psychological stability, but Martinez managed to pass the grid from ten meters. It was then that Trubin, in front of him, rejected Brozovich’s blow. In the second part of the match, it was the best scoring opportunity for both teams. Actually, Shakhtar didn’t have these moments at all, so we’re just talking about the offensive Italian accent.
Shakhtar had more opportunities than in the first half to work with the ball, more often the Pitmen found themselves in Handanovich’s penalty area with some claims of clarity, but not even the last one, but the penultimate pass was missing.
Darijo Srna said before the game that a draw would be good for Shakhtar (although it was clear without the Croatian’s explanation). Therefore, the Pitmen passed the final minutes without risk, they only had to fight against the invasions of Lukaku and company. Shakhtar successfully coped with the task of holding the ball and breaking the rhythm in conditions where opponents were already tired. And we are entitled to consider this result as positive.
A difficult opponent, a difficult match, but a pleasant result. For the first time in the last five years (since the game with Malmo), Shakhtar have played 0-0 in a Champions League main round match. Four points in the games against Real Madrid and Inter is a compelling claim to reach the goal and not be the last of this group.
Champions League. Group B. Second round
Ukraine. Kiev. NSC “Olympic”. 10/27/2020
Shakhtar (Donetsk, Ukraine) – Inter (Milan, Italy) 0: 0
“Miner”: Trubin – Dodo, Bondar, Khocholava (Matvienko 62), Kornienko – Antonio, Maicon – Tete, Marlos (Patrick 88), Solomon – Dentinho (Tyson 15)
Bury: Handanovic – Hakimi – D’Ambrosio (Darmian 80), De Vrey, Bastoni – Young (Pinamonti 85) – Vidal (Eriksen 79), Brozovic, Barella – Martinez (Perisic 72), Lukaku
Warnings: Bastoni 31, Vidal 64
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