Featuring an all-new Swiss bracket, the UEFA Champions League is once again up and running. The standout fixture of the tournament’s first matchday of the 2024-25 season was the match which saw Manchester City host Inter Milan.
Despite heading into the match as the obvious underdogs, Inter defied the odds with an impressive performance, holding City to a goalless draw. Inter’s defense did an outstanding job in keeping probably the world’s best player in Erling Haaland largely quiet throughout the match. While City did attempt 22 shots, not many of them were genuine high-quality goalscoring opportunities.
In the closing minutes of regulation time through the entirety of stoppage time, City had a flurry of chances to score the winning goal, but Inter held firm to prevent City from filling the net and ensure that one of the pre-tournament favourites would begin their Champions League campaign with dropped points.
Although Inter won last season’s Serie A title by a massive 19-point margin, the Nerazzurri failed to rise to the occasion in the Champions League. Inter only qualified for the round of 16 as the second-placed team from Group D - a group which on paper they ought to have topped. They then proceeded to lose to Atlético Madrid in the last 16 via a penalty shootout. Given Atlético’s struggles last season, this was a fixture in which Inter once again ought to have come out on top.
However, if Inter’s match against the reigning Premier League champions is anything to go by, this season could very well be completely different. Inter’s performance against City proved that last season’s Serie A champions are not to be overlooked in continental play as well as domestically. Simone Inzaghi’s team entered the Etihad Stadium with a clear game plan in mind and executed it to great effect.
To say that Inter “understood the assignment” would be accurate. Inter knew that if they were to attempt to straight-up outplay City and go blow-for-blow with them, they’d likely be soundly defeated. With this in mind, Inter knew that their best chance would arise by absorbing the pressure that City would apply, then striking on the counter-attack.
That being said, Inter certainly didn’t fall into the trap that many teams set up to attack on the break do - that of playing overly passively. Inter were proactive and created several viable chances to score. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that Inter came closer to finishing the match with the win than City did. In the second half, veteran midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan got on the end of a cross sent in by Denzel Dumfries; however, the Armenian failed to convert his shot from just outside the six-yard box. That was quite possibly the best chance that either team had to find the back of the net.
Despite a slower-than-expected start to their Serie A campaign, Inter seem to have built on their dominant league triumph from last season. They had an under-the-radar yet highly productive off-season transfer window, bringing nine players to the blue half of the San Siro and spending just a touch over €60 million to do so. Opting not to go all-in on a splashy signing who might not have panned out, Inter instead wisely opted for balance and depth - and this has paid off. This was highlighted by the performances of new arrivals Carlos Augusto and Mehdi Taremi against City - perhaps their best in an Inter jersey to date.
What has to be encouraging for Inter is the fact that despite the early-season slump of superstar striker Lautaro Martínez, Inter’s supporting cast have stepped up. Players such as Nicolò Barella, Marcus Thuram, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, and Francesco Acerbi have been in excellent form through the early portion of the season. Once Inter’s Argentinean ace breaks out of his slump, Inter will turn into a serious force - and perhaps a sleeper contender to go all the way in the Champions League.
Though their overall results so far might not seem to bear it out, the outlook at Inter Milan certainly has to be positive right now. Their match against Manchester City proved that they do have, at the very least, a puncher’s chance against the consensus top-tier, elite teams. They did make it to the final only two seasons ago - if everything breaks right, something similar might just be coming.
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