Inter Milan heads for the semi-finals of the Champions League at risk of ending the season with empty hands after a crisis at the end of the season killed its hopes of triples and let them wonder where the next victory comes from. The intimidating confrontation of Wednesday in Barcelona could hardly could have barely arrived at a worst time for Inter who, since he reached the last four, lost three games on the rebound without scoring a goal. These three defeats gave Napoli a three-point lead to the Serie A summit with four games to play and left Inter off the Italian Cup after a lamentable 3-0 derby defeat in the hands of AC Milan last week.
Simone Inzaghi’s team looks tired and devoid of ideas in advance. The defeat at home 1-0 on Sunday against Roma was played in front of a soporific crowd of San Siro which could not have been more different from the noisy atmosphere which accompanied their exciting passage in front of Bayern Munich fifteen days ago.
“We deserved more and created situations from which we have not obtained anything, largely because we lack sharpness,” said Inzaghi on Sunday.
“Perhaps a positive result would have given us more energy, but we must find it for ourselves. We must recharge our batteries, both mentally and physically.”
The last time Inter lost three in a row without scoring was in 2012 during the bad fate of Claudio Ranieri on the bench Nerazzurri.
The Inter lost against Roma in October 2022. Three days after this defeat, Inter beats Barcelona 1-0 en route to the final of this season in Istanbul, which they lost little against Manchester City.
Barça was opponents of the Inter semi-final 15 years ago when, under Jose Mourinho, the possible triple winners almost threw the title of Roma in Serie A, managed by Ranieri, before triumphing on the last day of the season.
‘Not frightened’
The Inter will also have less rest one day after having made his match with Roma on Sunday so that he did not face the funeral of Pope Francis, giving the defender of France Benjamin Pavard less time to recover from a sprain of the ankle collected on the weekend.
Barça is at a summit after beating Real Madrid to win COPE Del Rey on Saturday when their former enemies had a petulant fusion in the face of a third consecutive defeat of Clasico.
“We are not afraid, the best thing is to be in April and still have something to play,” said the return of the Carlos Augusto wing on Sunday.
“We have a chance to achieve something extraordinary and we are not afraid. This team has already won a lot and is still focused.”
Inzaghi hopes that striker Marcus Thuram will be available because his replacements have done nothing alongside Lautaro Martinez who looks exhausted and frustrated.
Captain Martinez was the key to Inter racing at the semi-finals with goals that first sealed their place in the first eight of the league phase, then dragged his team to the last four.
The 27 -year -old has scored seven times in five games from the Champions League since the start of the year, half of his total goals for this period.
He took over the house against Bayern and was in great shape during his winning display against the Bundesliga champions two weeks ago, when Inter seemed to be at the top of the world.
Now Inter rushes to save something from what had looked like a dream season, but quickly turns into a nightmare.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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