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Italy: Serie A Preview- Inter Milan v Treviso [Sat Aug 27th, 2005]
Inter Milan start their quest for the long-awaited 14th Scudetto at home against Treviso, a team that were promoted only because the other teams that came up were found lacking in financial resources.
BACKGROUND
Inter’s opponents in the first match are a complete mystery as they aren’t even supposed to be playing in Serie A after falling outside the top teams of Serie B last season. After the usual hectic summer full of trials and tribulations, it was decided that Genoa and Torino, who were promoted on the pitch, didn’t have the necessary finances to participate in Serie A.
Furthermore, Genoa were demoted to the third division after apparently buying their already-relegated opponents Venezia off on the last matchday.
Instead of those two once-glorious clubs, who would have enjoyed playing Serie A derbies with Juventus and Sampdoria, we have Treviso and Ascoli, who face Milan at home.
On paper these teams look like the Serie A whipping boys, as they have barely managed to put together a squad worthy of this league because they simply didn’t know they would be in it until recently. But the lovely thing about football is that nothing, literally nothing, is ever certain before the game starts.
On paper, then, Inter couldn’t have wished for an easier game to start off their Serie A season. After the sad match played against Shakhtar Donetsk in an empty San Siro, they will have a full stadium cheering them on again.
Nothing less than a convincing win will do today. In fact, no matter what result comes out of this match, it’s unlikely to give an indication of whether Inter have everything truly in place to finally win that eagerly awaited Scudetto.
Treviso simply don’t seem to have the players to remotely trouble Inter or any other decent team. The Inter fan will therefore expect a fearless team that starts attacking from the first minute, without suffering even a second throughout the ninety minutes.
There will also be a lot of curiosity surrounding the new recruits, such as Figo, Pizarro, and Solari, although only the Argentinean has had a starting place in this pre-season. The other two will likely start on the bench and new defender Samuel has been banned for three matches after he apparently directed a spit towards Nedved in the Italian Supercup which Inter won against Juve.
Unfortunately after this first round of matches all european leagues take a break for the national teams, who have to play in some important qualifying matches for Germany 2006.
This means that for all ambitious teams in Serie A it becomes truly vital to pick up three points today, so in the following two weeks they can work with more serenity ahead of the second match.
Looking ahead, after this Treviso game Inter face a much more difficult game away at Palermo, so somehow failing to get three points today would almost certainly herald another bad start in Serie A like last season that cost them the title.
But where in that period of endless draws Inter didn’t look like beating any team on paper, now they have definitely become more reliable and don’t make stupid mistakes in defence anymore to give points away to easy opponents.
This year it would be a major shock to see them out of the title race by November like last season. After triumphs in the Coppa Italia and Italian Supercup confidence seems to be truly back at Appiano Gentile (Inter’s training ground), and that’s definitely an important factor to win more important trophies this year.
TEAM NEWS
Inter Milan:
Defender Mihajlovic is the only player out injured at Inter, whilst Martins is in Nigeria with personal problems, and Samuel has been banned for three games.
Treviso:
No injury news on the Serie A new boys.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Alvaro Recoba (Inter Milan):
After Christian Vieri’s departure to arch-rivals Milan, the Uruguayan ace will definitely have more games to show his skills. Throughout his now eight-year career at Inter he has always been over shadowed by the likes of Vieri, Ronaldo, and now Adriano, and has been limited to the role of supersub.
Still, every season he manages to conjure up appearences that leave a mark on the Inter fan where he manages to save the team from a bad result with moments of brilliance. Remember the 3-2 comeback against Sampdoria? With Inter 2-0 down he assisted Martins on the first goal, hit the post from outside the area, and scored the spectacular third goal – all in the space of five minutes!
There’s no denying he is usually more effective when coming in as a sub. Mancini has even claimed that there is stronger player in the world than Recoba, if he gives the same effort every match he plays. This season he is surely first choice if either Martins or Adriano are unavailable, and has already gone back to scoring ways in the Champions League with a clinical strike against Shakhtar Donetsk in midweek.
Antonio Filippini (Treviso):
One of the creative Filippini twins who played at Lazio last year. Both brothers have come to help Treviso in the difficult quest to avoid going straight back to Serie B, where only they finished fifth last season.
Antonio plays in central midfield and may be remembered by some Inter fans as he scored in last season’s Lazio-Inter match, from an assist by brother Emanuele. Treviso fans will hope the two can link up as successfully as they did last year to at least take a goal from this very difficult first match.
POSSIBLE STARTING XIs
Inter (4-4-2):
Julio Cesar; J. Zanetti, Cordoba, Materazzi, Favalli; Stankovic, Cambiasso, Veron, Solari; Recoba, Adriano.
Treviso (4-4-2):
Handanovic; Galeoto, Dellafiore, Lorenzi, Dossena; A. Filippini, Gallo, E. Filippini, Reginaldo; Beghetto, Pinga.
Danilo Pochini
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