And so to Milan’s Stadio Giuseppe Meazza – San Siro – for our penultimate Champions League league phase game on Tuesday evening in what will be only our fourth encounter with Internazionale.
Our visit will also be among our last to one of the most storied football stadiums, where we have enjoyed highs — the unforgettable 5-1 win over Inter in 2003 — and lows — the 4-0 defeat by AC Milan in 2012.
After years of to-ing and fro-ing over the stadium’s future, the two Milan clubs have bought their historic home from the city for €197 million. They will build a new 71,500-seat stadium (San Siro has 75,817 seats) alongside the existing one, which they will then raise to make room for money-spinning, sorry, diversified revenue streams from commercial and entertainment facilities as part of an urban regeneration project, as is the fashion these days.
Nuovo San Siro (naming rights to come, lucratively no doubt), will be jointly designed by London architects Foster + Partners and US-based Manica, a sports and events specialist. The firms have worked together before, notably on the striking Lusail Stadium that Qatar built for its 2022 World Cup.
The plan is for construction to start next year, and the clubs to be in their new home by 2030.
The sale was announced just before November’s 70th anniversary of the addition of the stadium’s second tier with its distinctive 11 spiral towers and steeply banked seating. Had that milestone been reached under municipal ownership, Lombardy’s protections for cultural sites would have prevented the demolition of San Siro.
Regardless of any moist-eyed nostalgia, a world-class venue is needed not only by the clubs, but also by Italian football, which has not staged a UEFA final in a decade because of the ageing state of its stadiums and is due to co-host the 2032 Euros with Turkey.
San Siro dates from 1926 and was built on the model of British football stadiums (i.e., no athletic/cycling track around the pitch, as was the Italian preference). It was originally solely AC Milan’s home. Inter did not begin sharing with its rivals until 1947.
The clubs had previous. Inter was founded in 1908 by a breakaway group from AC Milan’s predecessor, the Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club, who wanted, as you would never guess, the club to take in more non-Italian members. Both clubs’ origin stories are retold in the preview https://www.goonerholicsforever.com/?p=10291 of our CL meeting last season, when Inter was the sole club to beat us in the league phase, extending our sequence of CL visits to Italy in which we failed to register either a win or a goal to five.
Chivu
This season, our hosts have a new manager, Cristian Chivu, a 45-year-old former Romania international with Inter DNA. He won the treble in 2010, playing left back for José Mourinho’s Nerazzurri. After retiring, he coached Inter’s youth teams for five and a half seasons before becoming head coach of relegation-threatened Parma last February, keeping them up with a final-day away win.
Three days after taking a 5-0 paddling from PSG in last season’s CL final, leaving Inter trophyless for the first time in his four seasons there, head coach Simone Inzaghi departed ‘by mutual consent’. Chivu returned to succeed him, despite having been in charge at Parma for only 10 Serie A games.
Chivu’s Inter youth teams had won trophies. They played high-pressing, positional football, not Inzaghi’s typically Italian, defensively solid, ruthlessly efficient football. So far, at least, Chivu has not deviated much from his predecessor’s core but ageing starting XI or its 3-5-2 formation. With an average age of 28.8 years, no club in Europe’s Big Five leagues has an older squad than Inter. Six times this season, Inter’s starting XI has had an average age of at least 30.
At a club that demands silverware, Chivu cannot just jettison the players who had got Inter to two Champions League finals in three seasons and had not finished outside Serie A’s top three in four. Yet gradual rejuvenation is underway as tactical tweaks, summer recruitment and Chivu’s integration of players from his youth teams underline.
Testudo
The team plays higher up the pitch with a younger back three now holding the highest defensive line in Serie A. There is more intensity off the ball in the press, and the team aims to control the tempo of games by building from the back. However, once it takes the lead, it reverts to what Chivu calls a ‘tortoise shell’ — a testudo, for the classicists — a deep 5-4-1 that has secured seven 1-0 league victories.
As a result, Inter leads Serie A after 21 games with 49 points, three more than AC Milan and six more than Napoli. It has won 16, drawn one and lost four, conceding 17 goals. That sounds miserly, but it is the joint-worst defensive record among Serie A’s top six clubs, and an indication of the vulnerability of the new high line.
In the CL Inter sits sixth, losing away to Atlético and then at home to Liverpool after starting with four straight wins. It needs a point to at least guarantee a knock-out qualifier for the Round of 16.
The opposition
Swiss international Jan Sommer should be in goal. The 37-year-old is having an inconsistent season, his last at Inter, but his presumptive long-term replacement, Spaniard Josep Martínez, is injured.
The rebuilt back three comprises another Swiss international, Manuel Akanji, who is on loan from the Oil-landers, 26-year-old Italy international Alessandro Bastoni, who was rested at the weekend amid reports of a move to Liverpool, and Yann Bisseck, a one-cap (off the bench) Germany international, a year Bastoni’s junior.
Inzaghi’s defence was usually selected from the trophy-laden Bastoni, plus Benjamin Pavard, the 29-year-old French international sold to Olympique Marseille over the summer; former Italy international Francesco Acerbi, now 37; and Netherlands international Stefan de Vrij, 33, who may be off to Geordie Arabia. Their younger replacements give Chivu the athleticism to play a higher line, but the old tortoises still come on to close out games.
Brazilian Luis Henrique, who is lightning fast but has struggled to establish a place since arriving in the summer from Olympique Marseille for €22,8 million, will likely start at right wing back as Netherlands international Denzel Dumfries is recovering from ankle surgery. Italy international Federico Dimarco should start on the left. Chivu has also used left-back Carlos Augusto, a fringe Brazil international, there.
For his midfield, Chivu has the seemingly evergreen Henrikh Mkhitaryan, formerly of this parish but now 36, Italy’s diminutive international Nicolò Barella and the skilful Poland international, Piotr Zieliński, who has more than 100 caps — and a salary to match that Inter is looking to get off its books. However, Chivu will not have his main man in midfield, Turkiye’s 100-plus-cap captain, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, who is out with a calf injury.
Another summer arrival, 22-year-old Croatia international Petar ‘Luka’ Sučić, who cost €14 million from Dinamo Zagreb, could also make an appearance. Sučić’s bright start has moved him up Inter’s pecking order ahead of Italy international Davide Frattesi, who interests Forest, and Andy Diouf, a summer signing from Lens who played for TH14’s France team at the Tokyo Olympics.
Up front will be the ‘Thu-La’ pairing of the Parma-born France international Marcus Thuram, another rested at the weekend, and Inter’s in-form talisman and captain, Lautaro Martínez. Inter has scored a league-leading 44 goals, and the Argentina international is Serie A’s leading marksman this season with 11. He is also closing in on third on Inter’s all-time goalscorers list.
Chivu has been giving increasing minutes off the bench to two young forwards, 22-year-old Ange-Yoan Bonny, a former France U-21 winger bought from Parma in July for €23 million, and especially Pio Esposito, a highly-regarded 20-year-old striker in the big and strong mould who captained Chivu’s Inter U-19 team. Already capped by Italy, Esposito scored three goals in five games in World Cup qualifying.
The Arsenal
We need a point from our final two games to avoid a knockout round tie and qualify directly for the Round of 16. The higher we finish in the league phase, the more advantageous the Round of 16 draw, so I expect Arteta to start a strong side, despite the need to rest some tired legs. Thus:
Raya
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber
Ødegaard, Zubimendi, Rice
Saka, Jesùs, Trossard
A match between a free-scoring home team with a vulnerable defence and visitors with a rock-solid defence but a misfiring attack has the makings of a close contest. There will likely be only a single goal in it, perhaps even none. Nonetheless, I’ll back Arteta to win the tactical duel for game control and bring home a 1-0 to The Arsenal.
Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.
Another excellent, informative preview which, for the second time this season, doesn’t leave me feeling as nervous as a bean bag. Your description paints Inter as a team that we should be too strong for, tortoiselike behaviour notwithstanding. Arteta will want to win this game (no surprises there) and I think the team you predict is quite likely. I’d start Martinelli on the left. He plays well with Jesus and both raise their game in CL encounters. Hopefully we’ll see Havertz too around the 60 minute mark in preparation for the RedMancs on Sunday.
My granddaughter is singing with a multitude of other Primary Scholars at the O2 tomorrow night so I’ll be watching and listening there rather than watching our game live.
Enjoy it Holics, wherever you’re viewing.
Ned ,
Super preview as ever but do we really need a point to avoid a knockout tie? We are the only side in Europe with a 100 % record . Eight sides are not going to finish above us with Quairat at home to come .
This is a game we really could rotate in without too much detriment. We were robbed there last year. The handball was a joke and they then clung on for dear life . I would love us to win but the key thing is to rest our most crucial players and avoid injury.
Villa came eighth last year in the group stage with sixteen points . We have eighteen already . I’d definitely play a weaker team than you suggest Ned .
Thanks Ned, excellent overview of the current situation at Inter.
It’s a pity about the San Siro but football stadiums can’t last forever
unfortunately.
I think MA will mix it up a little, not as much as the Bruges game
but I expect a few changes. Be nice to see Kai back, and I expect
Merino and Mosquera to start plus either Eze or Nwaneri in
place of Ode. The wings are anyone’s guess but I’d also like
to see MLS start. 2-0 to The Arsenal.
The GHF Predictathon Matchweek 22 leaderboard and the latest five-week form guide have been posted. Did you benefit from the West London windfall? You know where to find out…
TTG@2&3: Mathematically, we still need a point for direct qualification for the Round of 16, and thus avoid two more games in the play-offs. My thinking is that Arteta’s control-what-you-can-control philosophy plus win-every-game mentality will mean he will want to get direct qualification nailed down in Italy and not leave anything at risk of a slip-up in the final game. Also, the draw for the knockout rounds now works like Wimbledon. The brackets are set from the outset. The higher up the CL league a team finishes, in theory, the better its chances of avoiding a really big gun until the later stages — not that there are any gimmes once the CL gets to the knock-out phase.
if we get a point at inter we can do no worse than 6th. one more vs kairat and we can’t place worse than second. a win versus either guarantees us second and, depending on bayern’s goal difference in their last two games, could mean we get first (we will be at least a few ahead of them even if we lose one of the games).
beat inter and we cement 1 or 2. draw kairat after that and we are 1st (or the other way around).
Thanks Ned @5 for the predictathon update and scruz @7
for summing it up. The result vs Inter doesn’t matter a
whole hill of beans in many ways as the slightly
advantageous top two place can be secured next time anyway.
On the psychological hand however, I guess MA and the players won’t want to lose what will
always be a “big game”, away at Inter Milan. Winning is a nice habit.
Generally speaking MA plays a stronger team than I expect though he surprised
me last time at Bruges.
Thanks Ned for the enjoyable preview with such a deep analysis of the Inter squad. I remember reading your preview of the same match last season, recalling the story of the Milan clubs and the San Siro.
And thanks Matt for the fun review of the frustrating Forest match.
We have put ourselves in a great position in the CL league stage, winning all six games until now, and we shouldn’t let it slip. Finishing first or second are significantly advantageous and we should try to ensure that. While some rotation might be in order, winning in this match is more important than rotating. If we get the three points tomorrow, then we can afford to fully relax against the only Asian team playing in CL ( longitudinally, Almaty is between Bikaner & New Delhi, both in India) as the top two would be guaranteed.
Pleasantly surprised to see Mkhitaryan continuing to play at the highest level. Always liked him as a player, and though his short time with us wasn’t anything special, we should have tried to bring him when he was at his best in Dortmund.
Your description of Chivu’s Inter is somewhat reminiscent of Mourinho’s annoying but treble winning Inter (especially the tortoise-shell at 1-0 tactics). I suppose Thu-La aren’t as efficient as Eto’o-Milito partnership was. Our defense should be able to help Raya keep a clean sheet.
Scoring enough goal is a much discussed topic lately. If they plan on pressing with a high defensive line, Martinelli is a good option to have. And Jesus-Martinelli works rather well in partnership. Leo and Eze can bring in variety in the second half. An unusual option would be to rest Zubi, start Rice at the base and play Eze from the beginning.
My preferred starting lineup would be:
Raya
White-Saliba-Gabriel-Timber
Ødegaard-Zubimendi-Rice
Saka-Jesus-Martinelli
Defensive solidity, coupled with set piece excellence should see us through, maybe even 2-0. A convincing such away win against the current Italian league leaders would also be great for the squad’s confidence in the later stages of CL.
Come on Arsenal!
Our last game is home against Kairat next week. Kairat are bottom of the whole league . I hope Arteta is pragmatic tonight but the squad are all out in Milan. This is a great opportunity for rest and rotation . We have to take opportunities to rotate wherever we can. Some of those boys were running on fumes on Saturday. We are playing a team next Saturday who will only play 40 games this season .
Cheers Ned, great work as alwaus.
Given the Kairat home match, and the table situation, including GD vs Bayern, this is as close to a totally meaningless CL match as it gets in this new formula, for us anyway.
Momentum/confidence building/pride makes me believe Arteta will select a stronger starting line-up that I would, but as ever, staying injury-free will be absolutely crucial ahead of Sunday’s match against the fresh Red Mancs. That one we must convincingly win.
Thanks Ned
Excellent as always
3-0, no worries mate.
UTA.
Thanks, Ned. You won’t find a more comprehensive or enjoyable preview of this match anywhere on the planet. Truly a tour de force!
Like most Holics who have commented, I would take the opportunity offered by our form to date in this tournament to rest our players with a lot of hours in their legs. I know MA8 will not do this as he is so driven to win every game but I would rest either Timber or White, Zubimendi, Ødegaard, Rice and Saka, giving them at most a 20-30 minute run out in the latter stages. I want to see several of MLS, Merino, Nørgaard, Nwaneri, Madueke, Jesùs and Eze given a start. I also want to see Havertz given a few minutes otherwise I don’t think we will see him against Manure at all.
Meanwhile I read Pedro’s withering assessment of Gyökeres on Le Grove last night and I am afraid that I am coming round to his point of view.
Go win, Gunners!
Ah! I see that Ornstein has announced that Nwaneri may be going on loan to Marseille for the rest of this season, with no option to buy. So, I’d like to see all of the above bar Nwaneri.
Comprehensive report Ned – everything covered! Looks like a perfect snore-draw to me;
But my expertise in the Predictathon means it will probably be a shellacking (in our
favour of course!)
@14, Bath Assuming that he becomes a regular starter there, a move to the French League is probably a very good option for Nwaneri for the balance of this season versus minimal first team experience at home base – other than participation in daily training sessions (not without merit for him). Good technical standard of play without the physical loading that the PL represents.
I can’t recall any prior loans to Marseille. A new cooperation being fostered perhaps?
Btm @ 16 : I hate them so rather wish he’d go somewhere else, but do the names ‘William’ and ‘Saliba’ ring a bell? 😉
Although I admit on second reading, it may just have been a subtle reminder than they do. Only you can tell us.
Didn’t Marseille fire two of their players for fighting this season?
And isn’t Auba there now? Not sure I want him to go there either!
Indeed, Matt, Rabiot and Rowe left near the end of the summer window because of a fight after a defeat.
Thanks for the kind words, all. I found Chivu/Inter’s approach to rebuilding a squad instructive, and he seems to have got the balance of continuity and modernisation about right, a stark contrast to several PL clubs that will instantly leap to mind.
I am sympathetic to the rotation arguments, but for the reasons laid out in my @6, I don’t think Arteta is.
Keep an eye on Inter’s Federico Dimarco this evening. There are reports coming out of Italy today that we are interested in the Italian international.
Other reports about Nwaneri say there is no option/obligaton for Marseilles to buy in his prospective loan agreement. A few months playing regularly for De Zerbi might just be the career reset the youngster needs.
Guendouzi and Nuno Tavares both spent a season on loan at Marseille when they were on our books.
Oh yes, Ned. I’d forgotten about these two. Or spontaneously (but not consciously) omitted them on the basis of ‘didn’t return to Arsenal, so not ‘successful’ loans’. The quote marks coming because of Arsenal careers, but the real unsuccessful loans are of course the ones we can’t shift after their loans. Odd (or not?) that those two wound up at Lazio later at some point.
Another advantage for a club finishing first or second in the CL league phase is that it gets to play all its second legs at home. A club that finishes, say, sixth (as per Scruz @7) would play the second leg of the Round of 16 at home but would play the second leg away in the quarter and semi-finals.
Ollie@22: Guendouzi was loaned out as part of Arteta’s culture reset, so he can be put in the successful loan column on that score alone. Nuno Tavares’ loans are harder to assess. Like Sambi Lokonga, he arrived as a prospect at an age and a time when he was too inexperienced and inconsistent to hold down the regular first-team place he needed to develop. Tavares has become an albeit injury-prone starter at Lazio and got himself into the Portugal national squad. The career trajectory of Lokonga, who is now at Hamburg, has had a lower arc. Even adjusting for three years of Arteta’s coaching, would either be in our current first-team squad? Probably not, so their loans on balance eventually worked out for both them and us.
Customary excellence, Ned – thank you !
No guesses on the team but I can’t see Arteta going less than as strong as possible. I hope he does rest a few but it doesn’t seem to be in his DNA.
Nwaneri is reportedly being loaned to Marseilles because Arteta trusts / likes de Zerbi.
It will do Ethan good from a football and personal development point of view , I think. There is no buy option to the loan so his Arsenal future looks good – for now at least.
Fair assessment there, Ned@24.
A bit for everyone in the team selection, some rested, some not
Raya
Timber Mosquera Saliba MLS
Zubi Merino Eze
Saka Jesus Trossard
Strong bench!
Good to see Eze back, Mosquera and MLS too.
Cheaty unraveled at Bodo Glimt.
And Rodri forgot his free foul pass didn’t extend to the EU 😀
Manchester City. Club in crisis.
Noel Gallagher. Ricky Hatton. Ian Curtis. Martin “Money Saving” Lewis. Jason Manford. Eddie Large. Clive Myrie. Can you hear me? Your boys took one hell of a beating.
Thanks Ned for another top notch preview. As Matt says the team selection is a good mix of regulars and those less regular. We have been very positive at our squad depth this season and it is a good opportunity to check it out. Always hoping for a win but a draw would leave us in a very good spot tor the knockout phases.
COYRRR
Matt @28, Rodri’s yellow card exemption only applies within the PL and other locations susceptible to Arab gold. it doesn’t apply in the frozen north. FYI Norway aren’t in the EU. When Heath sold our fishermen down the river to leave them victims of European piracy, Norway spotted the scam and declined the offer of membership.
Shows what I know about reading the mind of Arteta!
COYRs! Make us proud!
Oh, and we qualified in the Top 8 without kicking a ball after
Cheaty got Beaty.
Time for ☕️
Coffee and a goal!
Well, that lead didn’t last long
Not much we could do about their equalizer as Sucic
crashed to home.
I thought Jesus was very quick to scoop home our goal.
2-1!! Get in for a second for Jesus
Corner to the back (was it planned or over hit?)
Nice header back across from Leo and our CF in
the right place.
I am going to go with planned 😀
MA has used his squad and his subs well tonight I think.
Be a good win if we can hold this one
Pleased with that, and for VG. Fantastic ball for
the breakaway and a nice finish.
7/7
Arteta got that right. We will finish first or second in the league phase, and thus will be a joint top seed in the Round of 16 draw.
I don’t know where the US broadcast took its commentary from, but it took great delight in suggesting that both Merino and Rice would deliberately take yellow cards against Inter, so they would serve their three-yellows suspensions with the Kairat game, and then was positively smug when both duly got cautioned. I was also confused by its assertion that we have no world-class players or those who know how to win trophies, as we don’t have players who have won medals, but then ran through a quite lengthy list of those who had.
I hadn’t realized about Rice’s yellow until he got it, but it is handy the suspension
is against Kairat though less handy that his most likely replacement is also suspended.
Anyway that game is just a free hit basically.
Our oddly misfiring PL attack now has 10 in the last three non-PL away games, which is very much firing!
Anyway, good win done and an extra day to rest for the Manure game
Did you know …
OM@45: Rare treat for the team not to be facing a low block for 90 mins. Saka, for one, looked confused throughout the first half by not being double or triple-teamed…
A largely excellent performance and a huge win. Now get in the ice baths then on the physio’s couch for a vigorous massage. Early night, good sleep then look at Manure tapes tomorrow.
Just to confirm that we will finish top of the table because the only team who can overtake us were Bayern and at best they can only equal our points tally . As we beat them in the group stage( in the event that the top side loses at home to the bottom one ) we would be above Bayern on count back .
Great performance tonight. He went with a stronger team and a very committed performance. I thought Saka and MLS were especially brilliant
Bang!
Some fine self-assisting there TTG!
Well in for the half ton, TTG, assumimg VAR doesn’t notice the self-assist.
Article 18 of UEFA’s competitons rules says that at the end of the league phase, goal difference is the first tie breaker between clubs that finish level on points. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the other nine tiebreakers that apply in descending order about head to head results.
Not that I think it will come to tiebreakers.
Having rewatched Gabriel Jesus’ second goal now several times it struck me how easily he and Trossard played head tennis in Inter’s penalty area. Poor defending quite probably, as their heights are not the highest. FYI, Trossard is 5 ft 8 in (1.72 m), and Jesus is 5 ft 9 (1.75 m). Well done by both of them though. Big Gabby could hardly have done better.
Some shocking suggestions going around that Declan and Mikel deliberately got booked and then laughed about if afterwards. Slanderous libel or is it libelous slander?
Well in for the HT TTG.
That was a very enjoyable match. And what Ned said @ 47.
Inter contributed well too to make it a pleasant match to watch.
TTG @ 49. The table works on GD not direct result as Ned said. To which I would add this is fairly logical, as you may not have played the team you are level with given this new formula.
So very theoretically we could still finish second. Still reckon we’d finish first if we put the U21 team in for that last match. Kairat are last will have a jolly good time in London. We have to be professional but I don’t think that’s underrating them. Not to mention Bayern would still have to make up the GD over the next two matches, even if they are scoring loads at the moment in their league.
bt8 @ 53, yeah I thought that was poor defending too, I’m starting to wonder if our corner kicks have just created trauma in the opposition’s (any opposition…) minds before they are even taken. It’s a big advantage for us now.
OM
How very dare you suggest cynical manipulation of the suspension stakes!
Actually that’s exactly what happened and very sensible it was too!
It rather suggests a midfield of Norgaard, Odegaard and Fireguard sorry Eze next week but this is a very real way to create some space and R&R in a heavy schedule . When we looked at the programme facing us over the festive period and beyond we winced but Arteta has managed bus resources quite brilliantly and we seem to be getting close to a full roster of players . These are exceptional times and he is a quite exceptional coach .
Thanks for the correction Ned and Ollie . It really is not likely to be an issue anyway. Bayern have a home game against USG and then a tough away game to PSV next week and we are seven goals ahead as we stand . Two goals conceded , one to each if Bayern and Inter is remarkable and both goals were basically unstoppable . Remarkable stuff . We are top of the European table even above the Spuds who are in fourth! They must be suffering from nosebleeds !
Haha, yes, TTG, what the hell are they doing in that position?
They can’t even beat West Ham at home… :-O
Fantastic preview as ever Ned. The ‘old tortoises’ line was especially smooth.
What a performance and result. Very pleased for Gabi and Viktor. When the Swede scored against Chelsea recently he looked like he knew it would be taking the piss to over-celebrate knocking home a fumbled cross from 2 yards after not scoring in 10 games (or however many). But this one was an excellent finish and he looked really pumped after it went in. Great stuff, we haven’t seen anything like his best yet and hopefully that goal is a shot in the arm for him. Come on Viktor!
I have to agree with TTG that MA has done a brilliant job over the Christmas/New Year period. Even with a couple of nil-nil games that people hoped would yield more points, the struggles of everyone else shows quite how hard it is and especially how much a balancing act for clubs still in 4 comps. Last night he got everything right. Well done to the manager and all the players.
Manure next. Big game. Bring it on!
>>>>>>>