Jurgen Klopp and Felix Magath showed the way Leonardo can knock out Bayern tomorrow. Dortmund and Schalke defeated Bayern Munchen inside Allianz Arena in the Bundesliga and German Cup, respectively, the same thing that Inter has to do tomorrow in the Champions League in order to maintain the dream to win the competition for the second year in a row. Bayern has not been in a great moment lately, but should be very concentrated and motivated to knock out Internazionale, as a revenge for the last year's final match. But it is possible for Inter to knock out Bayern in Germany; in order to make it happen, Leonardo should this time choose the same starters he used in the first leg in Italy to achieve this goal.
In Italy, Internazionale played with: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio, Ranocchia and Chivu; Zanetti, Cambiasso e Thiago Motta; Sneijder e Stankovic; Eto'o. Leonardo could say as an excuse that Milito and Pazzini were not available for that match, but from my point of view, he respected too much Bayern at home this way. He should have chosen either Pandev or Philippe Coutinho instead of Thiago Motta or Chivu. Mourinho's Inter was successful in Europe because they were able to achieve good results inside Giuseppe Meazza, playing at their highest level, and being able to defend very well their advantage during away games, following the defensive tradition of Herrera's Inter in the 1960's.
But now, the game is in Germany; that's why Leonardo should repeat the same team he used in the first leg. Jurgen Klopp and Felix Magath proved that the bets way to hold Bayern at Allianz Arena is by making double marking and covering situations to stop Robben and Ribery, and by consequence stopping the creativity of Munchen's team. Once safe defensively, the option is to be quick and efficient on counter-attacks, like Dortmund did, or be efficient in free kicks and corner kicks, like Schalke did. In Inter's case, a team that with Leonardo is not very effective on the air game, the best way should be to explore the excellent season of Samuel Eto'o and the vision of Sneijder to score in a counter-attack.
These players Leonardo chose in the first leg, as you can see below, are perfect to create double-marking and covering situations. In the right side of defense, Maicon and Zanetti should mark and cover Ribery, preventing the French to make his usual game by the left side of the attack. In addition, Zanetti would be able to cover Maicon when the Brazilian goes to attack in eventual quick and mortal counter-attack situations. In the left side, Chivu and Thiago Motta would mark and cover Arjen Robben, stopping the Dutch's game by the left side of the field. Lucio, if available to play, and Ranocchia are perfectly able to stop Mario Gomez ans still cover their teammates. Finally, Cambiasso would take care of Thomas Muller because of his experience and marking skills.
In this way, Stankovic and Sneijder are important to fill out the spaces in the middle and not let Luis Gustavo and Schweinsteiger control the midfield, but also being able to create counter-attacks for Samuel Eto'o, a three-time Champions League winner. Bayern's defense is weak; Tymoshchuk is not even a defender, Pranjic is not as good as his teammates, and Van Gaal is still not sure whether he prefers Berno or Badstuber to play in the defense with Tymoshchuk.
Despite the first leg's loss, Inter travels to Germany with a positive moral, with a group of players that are with Leonardo and trying to win a national championship that seemed to be lost in the last December. Like I said in the portuguese version of the post, Milan and Roma are already out, but Inter is still capable to change the situation and keep going in its Champions League dream, to repeat 64-65 winning period in Europe.
poor.
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