Lautaro and Skriniar Goals Secure Inter 7th Consecutive Serie A Win

Hellas Verona, Inter, Inter Milan, Italian Football, Serie A, Serie A 2020-2021 2 comments

In Round 14 of Serie A, second-placed Inter traveled to Verona in the hope of climbing above their fierce cross-City rivals Milan in the league standings. The Nerazzurri were looking for their seventh consecutive league win, while Verona hoped to maintain the second-best defensive record in the Serie A.

Despite Verona’s enormous defensive efforts trying to nullify Inter’s attacking threat, the Nerazzurri secured their seventh league win in a row thanks to second-half goals from Lautaro Martinez and Milan Skriniar. A 2-1 win over Verona meant that Inter were top of the Serie A standings at least for a couple of hours.

Interestingly enough, both managers opted for identical tactical formations, with Verona and Inter setting-up in a 3-4-2-1 shape. For Verona, two of their most important players in Federico Dimarco and Marco Faraoni occupied both flanks as wing-backs, thus forming a back five without the ball and providing attacking threat out wide when in possession.

In contrast, Conte continued with the same back three of Milan Skriniar, Stefan de Vrij and Alessandro Bastoni, whilst Ashley Young and Achraf Hakimi provided width as wing-backs. Ivan Perisic occupied a more central role this time alongside Lautaro Martinez, with Romelu Lukaku leading the line.

During the opening five minutes, both teams exchanged short spells of possession, but neither of the two managed to create anything relatively dangerous in and around the final third area.

Nevertheless, the first solid build-up play was executed by Inter in the 7th minute of the match. Marcelo Brozovic played a lovely through ball into the path of Perisic, but Verona’s center-backs were alert and swiftly sniffed out the danger.

The first goal attempt came in the 10th minute of the game when Young tried his luck from 15-yards-out, but his shot went narrowly wide of the left post. Two minutes later, the home side had their first shot of the match, with Pawel Dawidowicz’s attempt blocked following an in-swinging cross into the box.

Verona did a fantastic job in the opening 20 minutes by nullifying Inter’s main attacking threat in Lukaku and Martinez. The hosts defended with a relatively high line in order to prevent the visitors from reaching their final third. Additionally, Verona’s high press deep into Inter’s defensive half meant that the Nerazzurri had to play long looking for Lukaku who had a difficult first half battling against Verona’s solid back three.

In general, as a unit, Verona’s back-line did an excellent job dealing with Inter’s top scorer of the season for the first 45 minutes. All three center-backs and the center-midfielders were really quick at closing down the big Belgian striker once the ball reached his feet.

On the other hand, it took Verona 26 minutes to create the first decent chance of the game. Federico Dimarco squirmed away down the left-wing of Verona after a brilliant back-heel flick by Mattia Zaccagni, but Handanovic pulled off a superb save at his near post.

It took Inter another 10 minutes to respond, with Marco Silvestri pulling off an equally superb save at the other end. At first, Perisic delivered a precise defense-splitting pass to find Lukaku, who pulled it back for Martinez, whose attempt headed for the underside of the crossbar but was superbly saved by Silvestri.

The final minutes of the first-half saw Verona’s forward Eddie Salcedo receiving a nasty knock to the back of his head. It was an aggressive ending to the first period, with both Brozovic and Zaccagni receiving yellow cards just before the half-time.

After a sluggish first 45 minutes, Inter immediately started the second-half on the front foot, with Nicolò Barella getting on the end of a pass and unleashing a shot from the outside of the box that went wide of the right post.

Nonetheless, it did not take long until Inter found a breakthrough. The Nerazzurri’s first decent spell of possession in the second half involved Achraf Hakimi who sent an inch-perfect lofted cross into the box, with Martinez latching on to it and finishing off the move with a brilliant shot that hit the left post and bounced in off it.

Minutes after conceding, Verona tried to respond with Ivan Ilic drilling wide from the edge of the box. However, Ilic did eventually get his goal after a massive howler by Samir Handanovic. The Slovenian goalkeeper fumbled the ball, while the Serbian striker tapped in from six yards out.

But Verona’s joy lasted only six minutes. Once again, Inter attacked down the right side with Hakimi heavily involved in the build-up play. As a result, the Nerazzurri won the corner kick, which was quickly taken with a short pass, followed with a floated cross into the box by Brozovic. Skriniar leapt the highest of the lot and powered a header into the top right corner making it 2-1 to Inter.

After going 2-1 ahead, Inter maintained a positive momentum without too much intent to drive forward. In contrast, it seemed that Verona ran out of energy in the end and looked toothless for the final 15 minutes of the game. Lukaku had two great chances to put the game to bed in the dying minutes of the match but wasted them both.

Overall, although Inter were not at their best today, Verona looked very poor in the final phase of attack and did not deserve anything out of this game.  

 

MATCH REPORT

December 23, 2020 – Serie A 2020-21 Round 14
VERONA-INTER 1-2

SCORERS: 52′ Lautaro Martinez (I), 63′ Ilic (V), 68′ Skriniar (I)

VERONA (3-4-2-1): Silvestri; Dawidowicz (31′ Lovato, 59′ Gunter), Magnani, Ceccherini; Faraoni, Tamèze, Veloso, Dimarco; Salcedo (46′ Ilic), Zaccagni; Colley (53′ Ruegg) (Berardi, Pandur, Bertini, Cetin, Danzi, Lazovic, Udogie, Ankrah) Coach: Juric
INTER (3-4-2-1): Handanovic; Skriniar, De Vrij, Bastoni; Hakimi, Barella, Brozovic, Young; Martinez (87′ Gagliardini), Perisic (70′ Vidal); Lukaku (Padelli, Radu, D’Ambrosio, Darmian, Kolarov, Ranocchia, Sensi) Coach: Conte

REFEREE: Mr. Giacomelli from Trieste
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Dawidowicz, Zaccagni, Dimarco, Magnani (V), Brozovic, Bastoni (I); Extra Time: 1st Half 3′, 2nd Half 3′

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