Club Focus - Inter - Wesley Sneijder: the human-get-out-of-jail-free card

The Saturday night game between Inter and Siena was probably not written in the diaries of Nerazzurri fans as one to watch, but those who did see it witnessed one of the most exciting matches of the season so far. Massimo Maccarone nearly led the small side from Tuscany to a famous victory, before an astonishing comeback from Inter gave them the 4-3 victory.

It was not a classic performance from la Beneamata, riddled with defensive errors, including the usually excellent Douglas Maicon, but this sort of result shows why the title will be Inter’s again this season. Almost everybody watching – including Football Italiano – would have written off Jose Mourinho’s side when Maccarone made 2-3 with little time left, but Walter Samuel appearing in the area to score the winner must be one of the most amusing and unpredictable moments of Mourinho’s reign in Milan. And the Portuguese Coach deserves his share of praise for the result as well, because his decision to take off Ricardo Quaresma for Samuel immediately made his side look like a team that was capable of defending. Of course, when teams manage a result like this it means that they have had their fair share of luck, and Mourinho’s came in the shape of Wesley Sneijder, who scored two wonderful free-kicks, the second coming in the 88th minute which saved the game for his side.

Interestingly, had the Nerazzurri lost the game, it would have been Mourinho’s first home defeat in eight years – with Porto, Chelsea and Inter – which shows an almost unbelievable consistency in teams he manages. The Special One said after the match that he had considered the possibility of losing in the moments before Sneijder scored: “At 3-2 I was pondering my first home defeat in eight years against Malesani’s Siena, and I thought that at least it would come against a Coach I like. What I must say however is that my men showed an incredible character to come back like that and win the game.”

Despite the latest triumph, a certain Luciano Moggi took the opportunity yesterday to take yet another swipe at the champions and their manager, branding Mourinho “very lucky” and “an amateur” with Inter “the least bad side in a dreadful league.” It is interesting that now Moggi is unable to find a job in Calcio he is calling the league dreadful, but when he was rumoured to be joining Bologna he kept these views very much to himself. The former Juventus director’s occasional rants prove nothing except how far he has fallen, and he is obviously feeling hurt that his beloved Bianconeri are falling so far behind the Milanese sides in the race for this season’s Scudetto. On the plus side, the fact that Moggi is unwilling to remain quiet while he serves his ban gives everyone else the chance to enjoy his petulance and be glad that his is no longer involved with the sport.

In team news, Cristian Chivu has now been discharged from hospital after having surgery on his fractured skull, and has thanked both Inter and the supporters for all the messages he has received. He also said that seeing the side beat Siena made him feel a lot better and hopes to be back playing football as soon as possible. Elsewhere, Marko Arnautovic’s agent has said that Marko wants to stay at Inter, and that they both believe that the young striker can become a valuable player for the club. Arnautovic made a second league appearance this season for Inter on Saturday, and will hopefully get more opportunities during this half of the season to show the fans at Giuseppe Meazza just what he can do. The main transfer rumour of the past few days is that Inter are lining up a move for another disaffected Lazio player: Cristian Ledesma. The Argentine midfielder is in the same situation at the Biancocelesti as Goran Pandev was, and would seize the chance to move to Inter. Ledesma is a top quality player, and since he would be free it would be a move in which la Beneamata have nothing to lose and everything to gain.