Inter missed the chance to extend their lead at the top of the Serie A standings as they struggled to a disappointing 0-0 draw with Roma at San Siro on Friday.?
Inter began brightly, with both Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martínez having fantastic opportunities to score in the opening ten minutes. Roma quickly grew into the game and were the better side in the first half, although several defensive errors gave Inter a handful of chances to snatch a lead.
The second half began in a similar fashion as Matías Vecino had a fantastic early opportunity, only for Antonio Mirante to pull off another impressive save.
The two sides exchanged half-chances for the remainder of the game, but neither really created any real opportunities, and a draw was certainly a fair result.
INTER
Key Talking Point
Having moved to the top of the ?Serie A last weekend with a 2-1 win over SPAL, you would have expected more from ?Inter as they looked to temporarily extend their lead at the top of the table. However, this was not the performance of league leaders.
Their injury crisis in midfield left them completely overwhelmed in that department, and they could not get into the game or create chances. Instead, their best opportunities usually came from Roma’s defensive errors.
Yeah Inter aren’t scoring this game looooool they’re really tryna miss everything. Conte must be having flashbacks of Morata
— A (@LoftusCheeked) December 6, 2019
While this was always likely to be a tough game, Inter will see it as two points dropped, and the door is now open for ?Juventus to get themselves back on top when they face Lazio on Saturday.
Player Ratings
Starting XI: Handanovi? (7); Godín (8*), De Vrij (7), Škriniar (7); Candreva (4), Valero (5), Vecino (4), Brozovi? (5), Biraghi (6); Lukaku (6), Martínez (5).
STAR PLAYER – With Inter surrendering possession so often, they found themselves under a fair amount of pressure throughout, so they needed Godín to step up and protect their defence.
The veteran centre-back seemed to constantly find himself in the right place to sniff out danger, and it was almost hard to keep count of how many times he recovered possession for his teammates.
Simply not fair having Godin in back three..
— ?????? ? ?????? (@skjRoma) December 6, 2019
I think this has been Godin’s best half this season
— Lago (@inter_sf) December 6, 2019
He was made to work hard, but Godín rose to the challenge with ease. You can see why Inter were so desperate to sign him.
ROMA
Player Ratings
Starting XI: Mirante (8); Santon (N/A), Mancini (7), Smalling (8*), Kolarov (6); Diawara (6), Veretout (5); Mkhitaryan (5), Pellegrini (7), Perotti (7); Zaniolo (6).
Substitutes: Spinazzola (6),
Looking Ahead
Inter will host ?Barcelona in a crucial ?Champions League clash on Tuesday, before returning to league action against Fiorentina the following Sunday.
As for Roma, they will turn their attention to Wolfsberger in the Europa League on Thursday, and their next league clash will come against SPAL.
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