First off, as usual, an obligatory congratulations to Internazionale who have just secured a date with Bayern Munich at Santiago Bernabeu in the Champions League final. The fact that Inter have gone through to the final with 3-2 scoreline aggregate against Barcelona somehow gives Real Madrid fans a sense of relief as the final will be held in their own home ground, Santiago Bernabeu, and the sight of Barcelona being there in the final instead of them, let alone the abhorrent sight of Barcelona lifting the coveted Champions League trophy at Santiago Bernabeu would certainly haunt anyone associated with Real Madrid. Also, this somehow re-confirms Jose Mourinho as the Special One, although the aspect of that tag which was vividly expressed is “luck”. But still, in my opinion at least, luck is still a quintessential component for any top class managers or anyone for that matter if they are to obtain huge successes in life.
Any visit to the various top football websites around the cyberspace would reveal that many pundits have blamed a lack of some sort of Plan B as the main reason for Barcelona's undoing against Inter. They reason that Barcelona refuses to let go of their “beautiful, silky skilled football” in favor of more direct and unorthodox approach. However, I would certainly beg to differ on this issue. Yes, Barcelona was pinned back, and yes, they needed the plan B, and actually the sharper ones among us would have noticed that Barcelona did have a Plan B and they have executed it, albeit to no avail due to the eclectic combination of Mourinho's tactic tunings and luck. Basically, Barcelona's plan B did not involve them employing a traditional English style “Kick and Rush” into the box or “Kick and Shove” style associated with clubs like Blackburn and Bolton, but Barcelona simply dig deep into the depths of football's sinful and dark arts. Yes, they really got down low and dirty for this match.
Just take a look at the incident at the 30th minute mark in the match. First thing first, we know that football is actually a contact sport, and bodily contact, even severe ones at times, is not inevitable. With this in mind, at the 30th minute mark, Thiago Motta was maintaining his possession of the ball, and at that time he was trying his best to hold the advancing Sergio Busquets and there was a contact between Motta's palm and Busquets' face. What happened next was as shameful as an incident involving Rivaldo in 2002 World Cup against Turkey. Busquets simply tumbled to the ground, writhing in pain as if someone from the stand had shot him with a sniper, and the really shameful thing is that Busquets was holding HIS BACK OF THE NECK in “pain”! My goodness, the replay clearly showed that the palm of Motta's hand touching busquets face, and if the Spanish youngster wanted to play-act, he should have acted properly and clutched is face. It was really a shameful act, especially for a player touted to be the next big thing in Spain as well as the world. Even after Motta has received his red card, and went to confront/check on Busquets, the Spaniard was still clutching his back of the neck in “extreme pain”. Of course, after Motta had reached the dressing room, Busquets was able to run like a horse. So mysterious how players can “recover” so fast sometimes... But I digress. Nevertheless, it was one big incident involving Barca resorting to employ the darkest and most tabooed acts in the game. Whether this is the gameplan of Barcelona or whether it was simply triggered by the sheer frustration for not being able to breach the sturdy Inter wall, it is anyone's guess. There were also massive refereeing decisions but it will be touched on later.
As for Inter, I would consider their tactics last night as “Parking the bus”. I still vividly remember one of Jose Mourinho's colorful press conferences when he was in charge of Chelsea. It was right after his team was frustratingly being held by an ultra defensive Spurs side 0-0, and Mourinho commented that Tottenham had “parked the bus in front of the goal”. I would say that Mourinho certainly kept that tactic in mind. Mourinho did not utilize his attacking and effective 4-2-1-3, many attributed this to the fact that Goran Pandev, one of the triumverates of Pandev, Eto'o and Milito was injured, but nevertheless he utilized 2 defensive midfielders (Motta and Cambiasso). But actually which exact formation that he used didn't really matter as the real form of Inter's tactics last night was simply in the form of “parking the bus”.
The tactics were simply further discussed along with the game's statistics (taken from soccernet)
Shots (on Goal) 20(4) 1(0)
Fouls 20 15
Corner Kicks 9 2
Offsides 4 5
Time of Possession 86% 14%
Yellow Cards 1 5
Red Cards 0 1
Saves 0 3
A glance on this set of statistics, any statisticians would say that based on this alone, the clear winner of the match was simply Barcelona. But, just like many of Statistical data in this world, it simply lacks validity, and for this case, it lacks construct validity, for it doesn't represent what it is supposed to be presenting (well, mostly due to the fact that this tie consists of two legs but yeah).
Now, back to Inter's tactics. As we could see from the data above, (as well as from the match itself), Barcelona utterly dominated the game from the start to finish. But the question is, why out of the 20 shots by Barca, only 4 were on target? This lies in the aforementioned “Foosball” tactic. Inter's defence really resembled a unity of a white bus convoy. They simply follow and closing on to whoever is holding the ball and whoever are around the penalty area, as Inter committed at least 6-7 players at the back at any one time. Besides trying to win the ball back and to prevent the Barca strikeforce to be nowhere near the penalty box, they also forced them to resort to long range shots. Even then, the shooting angle is severely limited by Inter's players. It was totally hell for Barcelona's strikers. Even If Barcelona's players, such as Messi and Pedro who managed to do so quite a few times, are able to go through the sturdy Inter wall, there was always Julio Cesar to save the long range shots (which are actually not that strong due to the aforementioned angle limiting by the Inter defense)
But just like how shooting buses with machine guns would eventually destroy the bus, Inter's defense was no exception. They were really attacked from the start to finish and we have to commend Inter's players, including their strikers to defend themselves in such a disciplined manner throughout the match (Motta's red card didn't matter as they simply just withdraw one more man from the front) but eventually they crumbled at the 83rd minute.
To be fair to Inter's defense, the goal they conceded was an absolutely offside goal and I was surprised by how the referee was able to miss that. I mean, the goalscorer, Gerard Pique was in an offside position, but another Barca player at the far right side of the pitch was absolutely and totally offside, but the ref awarded the goal anyways. An interesting point about this offside goal was that, the goalscorer, Gerard Pique really showed the world such a Zidanesque dribble past Julio Cesar and an Inter defender that many would have forgotten the fact that Gerard “Zidane” Pique was actually a central defender. At this rate, Barcelona started to believe in themselves that they were able to get the one goal they needed to advance. Barcelona continued to dominate, but Inter continued to hold firm for the last 7 minutes of the match.
However, Nou Camp was absolutely rocked when Bojan Krkic “scored” an apparently the second goal that would have sent Barca all the way to the Bernabeu to face Bayern Munich. But it wasn't to be although it was a beautiful goal set up by none other than Gerard “Zidane” Pique. There was a handball by Yaya Toure from Pique's pass and the referee ruled the goal out, it must have hurt for Barcelona, it had to be, but in any case, the referee had made up for his earlier mistake in allowing Pique's offside goal to stand.
After the final whistle, Inter went through to the final. There was also an interesting incident at the end when Mourinho, who was on the pitch celebrating with the Inter fans in the stadium was involved in some sort of wrestling match with a clearly frustrated Victor Valdes who wasn't able to stomach the defeat and seemingly took offence with Mourinho's gestures on the pitch somewhat.
All in all, like what Mourinho himself have said, “no matter the result, I don't care, we win”. Thus, no matter how he has won this tie, whether through aggregate, away goals rule, parking the team bus, or anything else, a win is a win, and the Special One is now ready for the final battle against a resurgence Bayern Munich at Santiago Bernabeu. Something to look forward to! By the way, it is also interesting to note that since Barcelona, the defending champion has been knocked out, then the fact that since the conception of the current format of the Champions League, no team has managed to retain the trophy.
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