[ad_1]
It’s all square at the interval at San Siro – and it is league leaders Inter who have been held goalless by the work of relegation contenders Cagliari and their young goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. At half-time, it is Inter 0-0 Cagliari.
45′ HALF-TIME: INTER 0-0 CAGLIARI
44′ Darmian and Sanchez see an attempted combination flagged for offside. It’s looking like there will be no score before the break.
42′ There’s only one winner in this half and it’s not Inter. Their inability to crack the visitors is not fatal – there is still a long way to go and they’re getting close – but Cagliari will be delighted to have had so much ball.
40′ Darmian prods a fast, low effort towards the near-right post and Vicario smacks it away, unable to make a clean collection. Cagliari flash the ball back downfield to ease their immediate concerns.
39′ Nainggolan goes from distance! The Inter loanee looks to put his old club down with a strike from over 30 yards out, but Handanovic does well to get low and slap it away.
37′ Double chance for Inter! There’s a chance any goal would have been ruled out for offside in the build-up but Lukaku first miscues a cut-back in the box and Eriksen then splashes a finish wide.
35′ In terms of time on the ball, this has been a very even-keeled affair compared to where the two teams sit in the table. Inter have had only 52 per cent of possession so far.
33′ Nainggolan does some sterling work in cutting back to deny Sanchez and Lukaku a lovely one-two play to put the latter through one-on-one with the goal. That may have denied Inter their first goal.
31′ Cagliari are keeping any chance of serious expansiveness down if they can; those gaps that they leave are so easily exploited. Inter are looking a little bit frustrated to have not seized an opener.
29′ Sanchez pings a low effort in towards Vicario, attempting to beat him at the near post, but the goalkeeper has it surely covered.
28′ Every ground that currently hosts top-flight football behind closed doors in Europe surely feels a little different – but perhaps nowhere is as strange as San Siro. The lack of energy is palpable.
26′ There hasn’t been too much from Ashley Young yet – superb in midweek against Sassuolo – but he’s the initial architect of another spell of pressure, before Duncan digs the visitors out of danger.
24′ Sensi! Inter feel like they are raining chances down on Cagliari now, as the midfielder flashes an effort from left to right, across the face of goal and out at the far post. Close but no coconut.
22′ Skriniar! Inter think they might have the opener as Eriksen turns in a lovely delivery, but the defender is cited for a suspect push in the scramble to get to the ball.
21′ Nandez does well to cut off Eriksen after Lukaku lays the ball on for the ex-Spurs man through the right channel, but Inter grab a dangerous free-kick a moment later for a foul on Sanchez.
19′ The danger that Inter possess is growing, more readily apparent by the minute. They’re making metres far too casually when push comes to shove against this Cagliari defence.
17′ Sanchez! Oh, it’s a glorious combination from the striker and his old Red Devils partner Lukaku, the latter twisting a short ball through for the former to lift home – but he’s just offside. No goal.
15′ This is better from Cagliari, who regather possession and position – and look in danger of creating something with it too. They press down both flanks, one after the other, to no result in the end.
13′ That strike from the Denmark man has put a little bit of spark into Inter’s forward momentum, and they now occupy a foothold just inside the Cagliari half. The visitors look a little bit harried.
11′ Eriksen, what a hit! The former Totttenham man picks up a Sensi pass and lashes an effort towards the top-right corner – and it is a corking save from young Guglielmo Vicario to parry.
9′ This could be a particularly pedestrian Sunday affair. Not that Inter will care as long as they get the result; their cushion at the summit means this is undoubtedly more desperate for the visitors.
7′ Much as they were against Sassuolo, Inter seem unconcerned to be out of possession. There is a comfort to the way Conte has set up his side that they feel unhurried off the ball inside their half.
5′ A stroke of luck for Cagliari, as Sensi flashes a square ball through the visitors’ box and somehow finds nobody despite multiple attackers lurking. That was a sitter waiting to be tapped home.
3′ Even without the presence of players like Lautaro Martinez today, there’s still a fearsome quality to this Inter side. It will require Sanchez – enjoying a start – to possibly step up though.
1′ We are underway in this Serie A clash between Inter and Cagliari!
The teams have emerged at San Siro and we’re moments away from kick-off.
One thing likely guaranteed today? A home goal. Inter have failed to score in only one of their last 37 Serie A meetings against Cagliari, a 0-2 defeat in April 2013.
Subs: Alessandro Tripaldelli, Giuseppe Ciocci, Alberto Cerri, Charalampos Lykogiannis, Giovanni Simeone, Gaston Pereiro, Simone Aresti, Sebastian Walukiewicz, Arturo Calabresi, Kwadwo Asamoah, Ragnar Klavan.
CAGLIARI (3-5-2): Guglielmo Vicario; Daniele Rugani, Diego Godin, Andrea Carboni; Nahitan Nandez, Razvan Marin, Radja Nainggolan, Joseph Alfred Duncan, Gabriele Zappa; Leonardo Pavoletti, Joao Pedro.
Subs: Daniele Padelli, Danilo D’Ambrosio, Roberto Gagliardini, Ivan Perisic, Lautaro Martinez, Achraf Hakimi, Andrea Pinamonti, Ionut Radu, Matias Vecino, Andrea Ranocchia.
INTER (3-5-2): Samir Handanovic; Milan Skriniar, Stefan de Vrij, Alessandro Bastoni; Matteo Darmian, Stefano Sensi, Marcelo Brozovic, Christian Eriksen, Ashley Young; Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez.
Leonardo Pavoletti meanwhile is one of a host of changes who comes in for the visitors from the team downed by Verona last time out.
There’s four new faces for the hosts from the team who beat Sassuolo in midweek, with Alessandro Bastoni, Stefano Sensi, Marcelo Brozovic and Alexis Sanchez all into the starting line-up.
Leonardo Semplici’s side, if anything, have more at stake; their future in the top tier, to be precise. They sit inside the bottom three, five points adrift of safety – and an upset today would hand them a massive boost in the battle for survival.
With only nine games left – and one in hand over nearest rivals Milan, plus an eight-point cushion – Antonio Conte’s side look all but set to claim a first Scudetto triumph for a decade. But the Nerazzurri know the task is not yet done.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the 2020-21 Serie A season, as Inter look to further cement their status as champions-elect against relegation-embattled visitors Cagliari at San Siro.
[ad_2]
Source link
Antonio Conte will have a bit to say about how his side have fared so far. There’s a lot of work still to be done, of course, but he’ll be frustrated they’ve not cracked the code up front yet.