Bologna-Inter: Spalletti and a Lamborghini
Photo: Lewis Urquhart (@calciolewis)
Thiago Motta and I both found ourselves compromised in Bologna this weekend. My slightly-better-than-basic Italian led me to order the wrong mortadella panino, while Motta’s (somewhat) inexperienced team found themselves trapped in Inter’s 3-5-2 web during the first half of a tactically gripping 1-0 away win.
Bologna had not lost at home since this season’s opening day and came into this Inter game on a seven-game unbeaten run after returning from Bergamo with three points, having beaten direct Champions League rivals Atalanta.
Securing tickets for this game required experience in international espionage and unholy amounts of patience. Bologna’s run whipped fervour in the city and the club responded by allowing season ticket holders to purchase up to four additional tickets, most likely for friends/family who want a premium seat on the hype train.
The club hoped that this move would block any attempted Inter invasion, as often happens when one of the big boys comes to town. It meant that by the time mere mortals such as myself and my accompanying friends were eligible to buy, the only tickets available were the expensive ones, but we had come this far, so why stop now? In fact, we ticked a box that said we were Bologna residents to get our tickets a day early and had banked a friend’s Airbnb address as ‘proof’, but you didn’t hear that from me.
While staring at a yellow Lamborghini, trying to work out if it was a raffle prize or just poorly parked, Luciano Spalletti walked past in a trench coat.
Anyway, filling the ground with Bologna fans plus a few randoms like myself sounds like a great plan, right? The reaction to Yann Bisseck’s goal would suggest otherwise. A half hour of Inter dominance eventually told as Alessandro Bastoni’s exquisite first time cross found the back post run of his defensive partner. While the perennially noisy Inter away end erupted, so did half the Tribuna beside them. Almost nobody sitting around us were here to witness Bologna’s best team in twenty-five years, but rather the processional march of this year’s scudetto winner.
Suddenly, it all made sense. The atmosphere walking to the ground had seemed oddly neutral. The Bolognese wall of noise sought by the club was non-existent and the streets around the stadium resembled a fire extinguished by light rain, the loudest racket being made by the police helicopter that flew back and forth every few minutes.
The whole Stadio Renato dall’Ara experience felt like a surreal lucid dream. Within ten minutes of entering the ground, we managed to squeeze through the queues and get sat down with a beer. While staring at a yellow Lamborghini, trying to work out if it was a raffle prize or just poorly parked, Luciano Spalletti walked past in a trench coat.
We presumed he was in town to see Riccardo Calafiori, Italy’s hot new centre-back, who failed to make it off the bench in this game, or perhaps Riccardo Orsolini, a potential Euro 2024 replacement for the injured Berardi. The latter appeared from the bench with ten minutes remaining and sparked life into Bologna on the pitch and in the stands, but it was not to be.
Photo: Lewis Urquhart (@calciolewis)
Inter travelled down to Emilia-Romagna with twelve consecutive wins behind them, having scored more and conceded fewer goals than everyone else this season. It is little wonder that they were fifteen points clear coming into Saturday night’s game. Inzaghi thrives on rotating his squad and their dominance across this campaign only enhances their ability to do so, while reflecting on the success of the approach.
No Lautaro, Pavard or Dimarco; all rested with the Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid in mind. Without their best striker, possessing a virtually insurmountable lead atop Serie A and with one eye on Europe, one could foresee Inter slipping up. But they did not. After all, this is one of the continent’s best teams and not even this year’s surprise package could catch them cold.
Inter spent the opening stanza putting serious pressure on Bologna’s attempts to play out from the back, capitalising on visible nerves and forcing a handful of opportunities that meant Bisseck’s goal was ‘coming’. Barella probably should have put Inter ahead early on, but Bologna would argue that Lewis Ferguson’s long-range effort required a stretching save from Sommer and a pair of half-chances from set pieces could have led to something.
Still, Inter led deservedly at the break and it felt as though Motta’s hesitation in making changes prior to the 69th minute may have played some part in ensuring Inter made it 13/13 and the away end’s request that everyone should: “Salutate la capolista.” In other words, say hello to the leaders.
That mortadella, stracciatella and pistacchio sandwich from Mo Mortadella Lab will live with me for some time, even if I meant to order something else.
Inter, scorned by the disastrous at Renato dall’Ara that cost them the 2022 scudetto, and perhaps also bitter at the missed opportunity in last season’s Champions League final, have regrouped and built a side under Inzaghi that looks as impressive as Mourinho’s treble winners of 2010.
Serie A appears to be sewn up, but Bologna knocked them out of the cup in December and they could be out of the Champions League by the time you read this. Or they may not be, and the fruits of their labour to this point means that they can take the foot off the pedal domestically in pursuit of Euro glory. Not that they will be allowed to by Inzaghi, who looks set to add his name to Nerazzurri history before this season ends.
As for Bologna, they controlled the game in the second half, even if they failed to create enough clear-cut opportunities; but they managed to give Inter a game. European football is in their future, and it should be the upper echelons if they continue in this vein.
A day out in one of Italy’s remarkable cities; with meat and cheese, beer, sightseeing and a brief ‘encounter’ with the national team’s manager near a yellow Lamborghini that none of us won. That mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio sandwich from Mo Mortadella Lab will live with me for some time, even if I meant to order something else. Like Spalletti, who came to see Calafiori and Orsolini but received an Acerbi-Bastoni special, you’re rarely disappointed in Bologna.
