Inter needs almost a miracle at Anfield

Nothing is impossible in sport and if there is a sport that is prone to surprises it is football, but what Inter Milan needs to stay alive in the Champions League is almost a miracle. Visit Liverpool at Anfield, something that in itself presents a huge difficulty according to the state of the ‘network’. Jürgen Klopp’s team is right now one of the teams in the best tone in all of Europe, even holding the pulse for the Premier League against the powerful Manchester City. He does not know defeat in 2022, a year in which he has already won the Carabao Cup title and in which he has won all his games except for that final against Chelsea and the second leg of the semifinals of the same competition against Arsenal, both settled with goalless draws.

The company acquires tints of feat if you also take into account the result of the first leg at the Giuseppe Meazza, a 0-2 forged by Firmino and Salah in the final quarter of an hour and that was too much punishment for the current champion of Serie A Italian according to the merits of each team. This is how this rock and roll Liverpool of Klopp spends them, which also overcomes the year today without knowing defeat at Anfield, where the last foreigner to celebrate a victory was curiously Fulham, now a Championship team, on March 7 of 2021.

Seven wins in seven Champions League games, another great ‘red’ record that frightens a ‘Nerazzurri’ rival defeated in their two previous visits to Anfield, 2-0 in the first leg of the 2007-08 season and 3-1 in the first leg of the semifinals in the 1964-65 edition, a tournament that despite everything ended up being Inter’s second consecutive title. Simone Inzaghi’s team now clings to those glorious times of Helenio Herrera and Luis Suárez and to an alien but close precedent. Raising a 0-2 is possible, as Manchester United demonstrated in the second round of the 2018-19 Champions League, when they turned that result around at Old Trafford against an a priori much superior PSG with an incredible 1-3 in the Princes Park.

“It’s possible,” they believe at Inter, who somewhat cleared up their doubts with the weekend’s win in Serie A against the weak Salernitana (5-0). He needed it and a lot after accumulating four consecutive days without winning in the Italian championship, including the painful 1-2 against in the Derby della Madonnina against Milan. In spite of everything, the errors of the rivals allow the Interista squad to keep the leadership within reach in case of victory against Bologna in the duel that is still postponed.

Barella, low key

For the challenge at Anfield Simone Inzhagi will not have the suspended Barella, a fundamental loss that was already noted in the first leg. The transalpine midfielder will serve the second of the punishment matches for the attack on Militao in the last game of the group stage, against Madrid at the Bernabéu. He does, however, have his classic defense of three central defenders and lanes, in addition to the good moment of his two forwards, as Lautaro Martínez scored a hat-trick against Salernitana and Dzeko seconded the Argentine with a brace.

For his part, Jürgen Klopp once again has his entire squad at his disposal, something difficult at this stage of the course. Matip, Thiago and Firmino completed training yesterday in Melwood along with the rest of the group and offer the German coach a wide range of options in all lines, although Konaté, Henderson or Luis Díaz start with more options and competition pace. In fact, the Colombian is already beginning to win over the entire Liverpool environment as that ideal companion on the left side of the attack for the undisputed Mané, as a false ‘9’, and Salah, starting from the right.