By Charly Drechsler
August 10 2005

Inter beat Shakhtar 2 – 0 in Donetsk and is very close to making it to the Champions League with a solid style. The defense looked very safe, and the team responded well to a local team that put up a decent fight. The match wasn’t much of a nice show, but Inter can be very happy with their game. Both teams came out with similar systems. Inter formed with Julio Cesar in the goal; in defense, from right to left, Zanetti, Córdoba, Materazzi and Favalli; a line of four men in midfield with Stankovic, Verón, Cambiasso and Solari; and Adriano with Martins up front. Shakhtar had Lastuvka as the ‘keeper; Srna, Barcauan, Hubschmann and Rat Razvan in defense from right to left; Timoshchuk as the defensive midfielder, surrounded by Duljaj to his right, Elano to his left and Matuzalem some yards ahead of him; Brandao and Byelik were the strikers.

These systems would remain the same both for attack and defense, which would mean that there were not many surprises in the first half. Shakhtar had more possession than Inter, but couldn’t find their way into the unbreakable ‘Nerazzurri’ defense and abused of long shots during the whole match. Inter did not attack as often, but was a bit more dangerous, with a Materazzi header cleared off the line and a nice play that couldn’t be finished by Cambiasso.

Mancini’s players hardly ever left their positions; while in defense, the two lines of four men would be very compact and make it very hard for Shakhtar to penetrate, in attack they would strictly stay in their roles and would not move forwards to join Martins and Adriano, that had to pull back to the hole to get in touch with ball.

Lucescu did get his men to attack, but never found the way into the rival’s defense. Srna and Rat would constantly go past the midfielder’s backs in the wings to try and cross the ball, but it didn’t work either. Matuzalem, the attacking midfielder, did not have a good match, was never dangerous or provided nice passes to the strikers. In fact, Tymoshchuk organized the attack from defensive midfield, as he received all the balls and was in charge of distribution. He was able to do so from midfield since Inter were only pressing well inside their own half.

The second half started just like the boring first half had ended. But some minutes after the kick off Mancini decided to bring Ze María to the field in replacement of Solari, who was not having a good evening. Stankovic went to the left wing and Ze María took his place. With this change, Inter looked more aggressive, with Verón and Cambiasso going further into Shakhtar’s field and Adriano and Martins inside the box. This would be seen in the 67th minute, when Stankovic and Verón got together in the left, sent a low pass to Adriano, who with a back heel pass made Martins finish the move only with Lastuvka left to beat.

The match got better with the goal, since Shakhtar now needed an equalizer and was forced to go forwards. Lucescu changed his side midfielders for more attacking ones with Brazilians Jadson and Fernandinho, but still Inter’s defense was like a wall. But the changes meant that there was less marking in Shakhtar’s midfield, so Cambiasso and Verón, and later Pizarro, who came in for him, had more space and organized the attack more calmly. Ten minutes after the goal, a nice tidy attack by Inter was finished by Adriano with a header after a cross by Ze María. Credit must also go to Zanetti for distracting Rat, that was marking Ze María and didn’t give him space to make the cross.

Inter could have scored more goals, and Shakhtar never found its way into the great zone marking that the two four-man lines executed as desired by Mancini. Shakhtar did put up a fight, but the defensive midfield commanded by Tymoschuk and in which Matuzalem didn’t participate was helpless when the Inter’s midfielders advanced.

All in all, Inter rounded up a solid performance, especially in defense, and they are almost into the Champions League. While there are still some adjustments to make in attack, and important players like Figo and Samuel are still to fit in the team, Mancini can be pleased with the performance, and fans can start to think about titles.