Inter Milan have come away from the Etihad with a huge point against Manchester City at the start of their Champions League campaign in the new format of the competition. It was obviously an important clash between the reigning Premier League and Serie A champions, and though City were considered favourites to triumph after four straight victories in the English top flight, the affair remained goalless.
The teams
City boss Pep Guardiola arranged his men in a 3-2-4-1 formation. The trio of Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol formed the back line ahead of goalkeeper Ederson Moraes. Young Rico Lewis joined Rodri at the base of midfield. Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva were deployed further up as the main creative force, flanked by Savinho and Jack Grealish, while Erling Haaland, having scored nine goals in the four Premier League matches, led the line upfront.
As for Inter, coach Simone Inzaghi went with a rather flexible 3-5-2 shape, easily turned into 5-3-2 when need arose. With Yann Sommer in goal, Alessandro Bastoni, Francesco Acerbi and Yann Bisseck formed the last line of defence. Matteo Darmian on the right and Carlos Augusto on the left, were the two men which slotted either side of the defensive trio when out of possession and quickly moved into the midfield line with the ball belonging to their team. Piotr Zielinski, Hakan Calhanoglu and Nicolo Barella were in the middle of the park, while Mehdi Taremi got the nod ahead of captain Lautaro Martinez to partner Marcus Thuram in attack.
The game
No-one will have been surprised with the fact that City dominated possession with 60% throughout the game, but Guardiola’s men head notable difficulties while trying to break through the resilient lines of their opponents. But it was interesting to see them struggle to create proper chances for a long time.
They did manage to cause the visitors problems on a few occasions, though. In the first half, Haaland got the better of Acerbi in the air to hit the target, but the header went straight into Sommer’s outstretched arms. Grealish did well on the left to employ De Bruyne twice, but the Belgian maestro only managed to hit the outside of the net from an extremely tight angle, and then to prompt a timely reaction from Sommer. The closest they got before the break was in the 35th minute, when Haaland’s low shot from the edge of the box trickled about a foot wide, having left Sommer rooted to the spot.
At the other end, Inter threatened when Ederson rushed out to prevent a corner and gave the ball to Darmian, whose blast from range was stopped by Gvardiol. Thuram also had a pair of promising chances, but his finishing left a lot to be desired. Their arguably best chance of the half fell for Augusto, but much like De Bruyne, he also had a tight angle to try and find a goal from, giving Ederson a chance to show how focused he was.
Guardiola made a pair of changes at the break, one forced as De Bruyne suffered an injury and made way for Ilkay Gundogan, and one tactical as Phil Foden replaced Savinho. Foden came close to scoring after less than three minutes, narrowly missing the far top corner from around 20 yards, and then again in the 69th minute when a nicely worked team move gave him a chance to shoot from close range, but Sommer was impeccable again.
By then, Inzaghi had introduced Lautaro, Henrikh Mkhitaryan for Thuram and Zielinski, and with 15 minutes left, Denzel Dumfries and Benjamin Pavard came on for Darmian and Bisseck, respectively. Soon after that second double change, Dumfries did well to find Mkhitaryan in the middle of the box, but the Armenian whacked his shot just over the bar.
Guardola’s last throw of the dice was to sent Jeremy Doku on for Bernardo Silva, and the substitute winger did look lively on the right, but with no impact on the scoreboard.
As the game entered its final stage, City pushed harder by the minute to try and find a winning goal, but no matter how hard they tried, it wouldn’t come. Gvardiol’s shot from just outside the box in the 79th minute was nicely saved by Sommer, Rodri fired wide from range in the 86th, Sommer made another save from Foden a minute later, and the final two chances came to Gundogan, both headers, one straight at Sommer, the other just over the bar.
Haaland kept relatively quiet
Inzaghi will be very proud of the way his defenders prevented Haaland from making an impact on the game. Apart from that one very dangerous moment in the 35th minute and the header into Sommer before that, the Norwegian sensation posed very little threat for the Swiss veteran ‘keeper all game.
To stop a player with nine goals in previous four matches, probably the best striker in the world at the moment, Bastoni, Acerbi and Bisseck (later Pavard) had to remain focused from the first whistle to the last, and they did the job quite admirably.
Looking ahead
Things won’t get any easier for the Premier League champions at the weekend. They’re still the only team in the league with a 100% record, having beaten Chelsea, Ipswich Town, West Ham and Brentford, but on Sunday, they’ll be facing Arsenal, and the Gunners certainly have a point to prove after narrowly missing out on the title themselves last season.
City will, however, seek to get back to winning ways in the Champions League on the first day October when they travel to Bratislava to take on Slovan in the second round of the competition.
Inter, meanwhile, have a tough game to play themselves this weekend. They face city rivals AC Milan on Saturday at San Siro, but they will draw confidence from their performance at the Etihad, as well as the fact that the Rossoneri were just outplayed and beaten by Liverpool at home.
Both City and Inter will see their next games as important steps in their efforts to defend their domestic titles.
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