It was probably one of Inter’s least important matches of the year on Tuesday night. The Nerazzurri had already qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League, but still had to visit Bayern at the Allianz Arena.
Inter made seven changes to the squad that won 3-0 against Sampdoria on Saturday. Matteo Darmain and Francesco Acerbi replaced Milan Škriniar and Alessandro Bastoni in defence, Raoul Bellanova and Robin Gosens came in for Denzel Dumfries and Federico Dimarco on the wings, Kristjan Asllani and Roberto Gagliardini came in for Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, while Lautaro Martinez partnered Joaquin Correa instead of Edin Džeko. These changes were not surprising considering the Nerazzurri play Juventus on Sunday.
The first real danger of the night came from none other than Nicolò Barella. A corner fell to his feet and he fired at Ulreich’s goal, but the German goalkeeper kept it out well. The same happened on the resulting corner, but this time it hit the hands of Mané instead of the goalkeeper’s. VAR called referee Kruzliak to the screen and after watching for a very long time, he decided against giving a penalty.
Lautaro got the chance to make it 0-1 in the 27th minute, but he failed to finish Gosens’ low cross at the second post. Only a few minutes later, Bayern found the net on the other side. Stefan de Vrij blocked Mazraoui’s effort and argued that he was fouled after, but the referee gave a corner out of which Benjamin Pavard made it 1-0 for the home side. He beat Lautaro in the air and scored with a diagonal header.
It looked like Inter’s second half started well, when Acerbi headed Asllani’s free-kick past Ulreich, but it was rightly ruled offside. The same happened at the other end, with an acrobatic Choupo-Moting goal ruled out just after the hour mark. He scored again 10 minutes later, this time not offside. A brilliant strike from the edge of the box ended up in the top left corner.
Then, the substitutions came and the match lost the last intensity it had left. Inter’s biggest chance came just before the final whistle, with Asllani finding Dzeko in the box, but Ulreich made a fine save. The score remained the same, what meant Inter finished Group C in second position, with 10 points. The Nerazzurri will look to do better on Sunday evening, when they visit Juventus at the Allianz Stadium.
Jurre van Wanrooij | GIFN
