Football Dissected

Inter were held to a 1-1 draw against Udinese on the opening weekend of Serie A. No doubt it isn't the best of starts in defence of their title, especially after their recording-breaking points total in the 06-07 season and after both Juventus and AC Milan both won their opening fixtures. So what went wrong?

With Patrick Vieira and others injured and both Adriano and Esteban Cambiasso left out of the squad as they appear to be on their way out of the club, Inter were left really with a makeshift team. Ex-Roma midfielder Olivier Dacourt held the holding midfield role for most of the game while his teammates Dejan Stanković and the aging Luis Figo pressed forward in support of Zlatan Ibrahimović and Julio Cruz. Inter took the lead through Stanković after just eight minutes after he got onto the end of a clever defence-splitting pass from Ibrahimović.

After the goal came, Inter created several more chances to increase the lead, the best effort for a second goal coming from Julio Cruz who went for power instead of placement. As the first half went on, Udinese increasingly got back into the game with their 4-3-3 formation. The attacking trio of Antonio Floro Flores, Fabio Quagliarella and Asamoah Gyan continually created difficulties for Inter's back four, especially Walter Samuel who was beaten by pace midway through the half by Gyan who's power-driven cross was nearly deflected into the back of Inter's net. Time and again Inter left only a few back, a clear sign of the shift away from defensive football in Serie A in recent years (in the 06-07 season more goals were scored in Serie A than in any of the other major European leagues)

In the beginning of the second half, Inter eased off, allowing Udinese to come on the offensive. And on the 57th minute things turned to the worse. Again Inter left just two defenders back and a Udinese long ball proved too much. Gyan attempted to get onto the long ball with centre back Walter Samuel with him. But goalkeeper Júlio César had other ideas. He rushed off his line to try and clear the ball, but he misjudged the bounce, the ball flying over him. Aware of the fact that Gyan would be able to beat Samuel with his blistering pace, César did the next best thing - he deliberately handled the ball outside the box. A straight red soon followed and so did veteran goalkeeper Francesco Toldo.

For the reminder of the second half Inter contentedly slowed the pace of the game seeing as they were down to ten men and it was an incredibly hot day. A brief burst of creativity from Ibrahimović here and there was really the only thing going for Inter as they passed the ball round lethargically. But Udinese had other ideas. When they had the ball they continually they tried to create chances, most coming from poor crosses into the box.

David Suazo and Cristian Chivu both made appearances in the second half with Suazo being the more active of the two as he partnered Ibrahimović up front.

At the end of the ninety the fourth official held up the electronic board to signal five minutes was being added on. Three minutes later a corner kick was headed into the back of Inter's net by Iván Córdoba and Udinese came away at the end of the game feeling happy with a point against the defending champions, particularly with how hard they worked. Inter on the other hand will feel hard done by, conceding the equaliser with just minutes to go, and Roberto Mancini probably won't be happy with his side's performance and the draw in light of the fact that AC Milan beat Genoa 3-0 and Juventus hammered Livorno 5-1 with David Trezeguet scoring a hat trick on the Old Lady's return to Serie A.