Manchester City-Inter lacks goals, not excitement

Champions League, Manchester City-Inter 0-0

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It ends with the score of 0-0 the Wednesday Champions League supersfight between Manchester City and Inter, a match that no more than fifteen months ago awarded the Cup with big ears. Pep Guardiola’s team and Simone Inzaghi’s team faced off and had several chances to take it home, but in the end the goals defended by Ederson and Sommer remained inviolate.

The pace is high from the opening whistle: the first half is characterized by a few of interesting chances that happened to the guests (Thuram wastes on 16', Calhanoglu sees a good conclusion deflected into a corner on 20', Carlos Augusto fails to get past Ederson in the final half) and a couple of attempts by Haaland (Sommer saves on 16', shot wide of the post on 36') for the Citizens, which, however, do not change the score at the whistle that sends everyone to the locker room for halftime.

The restart began with Foden and Gundogan replacing Savinho and De Bruyne, Inzaghi instead waited twenty minutes to insert Lautaro Martinez and Mkhitaryan, replacing Thuram and Zielinski. Foden and Grealish came dangerously close to the Nerazzurri goal around 70', so Inzaghi also inserted Dumfries and Pavard at 74' in place of Darmian and Bisseck, to give freshness to the team.

Mkhitaryan has a very good ball at 76', but sends it into the corner from a few meters away from the goal; on the other side è Gvardiol to try, from the distance, engaging Sommer not too little at 79'. Last changes at 80'80': Doku for Bernardo Silva on one side, Frattesi for Calhanoglu on the other. Lautaro at 84'84; and Gundogan five minutes later came dangerously close to their respective opponents’ goals, but the result remained anchored at 0-0 and not even 4' of recovery time changed the fate of the match: two of the favorites for direct qualification to the round of 16 thus start with a point.