Why Inter cannot and must not be afraid of Paris Saint-Germain

Once upon a time, Milan lit up when they “heard the tune”, to use a concept dear to Adriano Galliani. And it is in that tune that Simone Inzaghi’s Inter took refuge all year, letting the Scudetto slip away like a leaf fallen into a mountain stream , completely shifting their attention and losing a championship that everyone thought was within their reach. “When we see the Champions League ball we wake up”, said Davide Frattesi a few days ago, involuntarily giving even more solidity to the perception of a team with two faces, fierce in Europe, more absent-minded in Italy, perhaps satisfied by the Scudetto of the second star that arrived twelve months ago.

Inter has climbed very high mountains. It has already conquered Monaco, the scene of the final, and defended that advantage tooth and nail in the return match; it stopped the Yamal tidal wave by opposing it with everything it had at its disposal, from the posts of San Siro to the hands of Yann Sommer. It found itself with its back to the wall and came out alive, finding unexpected and unpredictable goals, leaving Barcelona speechless . It has alternated moments of exhilarating football with moments of strenuous defense, like trench warfare. And if two years ago the final act against Manchester City seemed a foregone conclusion, regardless of what the pitch said, this time the impression is that the distance is not so great. It is no longer the Paris Saint-Germain of global stars and perhaps for this very reason it has reached the final: Luis Enrique had already found the squaring of the circle last year, also in the version with Mbappé , and only fate had deprived him of the final against Real Madrid, exiting in a double semi-final with Dortmund dominated for long stretches. But it will take the best Inter, focused, fierce, polished.

It is curious and paradoxical, but the challenge between Simone Inzaghi and Luis Enrique will be played around what can be at the same time the strengths and weaknesses of their respective teams . Just think of the Hakimi-Dimarco duel, overflowing when it comes to attacking and decidedly less on point when it comes to defending: Inter will try to manipulate the game in the moments in which PSG increases the pressing (and there will be many), trying with the ball circulation and with the three-man games between Bastoni, Mkhitaryan and Dimarco to go and strike behind the great ex of the evening, perhaps with the lay-off of Thuram who loves to open up on the left. But the Parisians will want to do the same: during the season, Dimarco has seemed to be the weak link in Inzaghi's defensive system, and so pay attention to the phases in which PSG will overload that lane, exploiting the continuous exchanges between the three attackers to leave space for Hakimi's bursts. The duel on the other lane risks being more blocked, because the challenge between Dumfries and Nuno Mendes promises to be one of crazy competitiveness, risking neutralizing the Dutchman, one of the improper weapons of this European ride of Inter. But be careful, because the number 2 of Inter can put his head with great effectiveness on set pieces, the aspect of the game in which PSG seems more fragile: Arsenal tried to overturn the semi-final even using throw-ins fired directly into the penalty area, Inter built part of its triumphs by making the most of corners and free kicks, as Bayern and Barcelona know well.

Inter will need the ancient art of patience: there will be moments when PSG will make the final a nightmare, they will want to control the game thanks to the formidable trio of Joao Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz, and the Nerazzurri must not be distracted. Acerbi will not have a reference to hold on to, because PSG does not have the classic totem: no Haaland, no Kane, no one to impose his very personal Ludovico treatment on. There will have to be three bodies and one soul, PavardAcerbiBastoni, all attached, in the desperate need not to end up dazed by the movements of Doué, Dembelé and Kvaratskhelia, used to deceiving the opposing defenses by appearing and disappearing when needed. Valdano said that "football has progressed like traffic: before it was easy to get around, now it has become hell". When they are confident, PSG can sneak through that traffic like scooters in the metropolis . Inter will need to break this confidence, they will have to try to expose the two central defenders as they did in Lautaro's wonderful goal at Bayern Munich. And then, to get to the goal, they will have to overcome the ultimate monster of video games, that Gigio Donnarumma who, through criticism, often unfair, has gradually grown bigger, his face marked by battles, the supernatural ability to bring his enormous body to the ground in a fraction of a second. He played a Ballon d'Or-worthy Champions League, churning out saves that would be enough to fill collections of highlights of an entire career of a normal goalkeeper. Arsenal, who after overcoming the obstacle of Real Madrid as if it were nothing, believed they could also easily dispose of the Parisians: Donnarumma's saves have made the Gunners grow palpably frustrated.

And then we get to the intangible, to what doesn't enter the statistics and yet, almost always, ends up deciding a final, especially at this level. We'll need an Inter that's awake, fired up, constantly on the ball, capable of not losing its cool in the face of a negative episode that in football can always be around the corner. It won't be easy, because in the league the Nerazzurri have taken practically all the crossroads they've found themselves facing in recent times the wrong way, as demonstrated by that Inter-Lazio match in which Inzaghi and his boys threw away a Scudetto that had suddenly returned to being within reach after weeks in which Napoli had been fully in control of their own destiny. We'll need a mature team, capable of demonstrating that they've processed that pain, internalized it and transformed it. They'll have to turn it into fuel to fuel the engine of victory, because the thread between a season without trophies and one to be handed down to posterity is so thin that it can fall apart in a single, fatal, moment of distraction.

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