Inter lost 1-2 to Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, but they could have won. The game is not easy to read: it could have finished 3-2 to Inter, given the chances the Nerazzurri created, especially in the second half, but it could also have been 4-1 to the home side had Josep Martínez not made at least three exceptional saves between the end of the first half and the opening minutes of the second. The Spanish goalkeeper, after his serious mistake on Real’s second goal, at least partly made amends. But the result in Madrid only tells part of the story, because the game itself went in several different directions.
For at least twenty minutes, Inter played with real personality. They controlled the flow, tried to keep Real Madrid away from their area and, above all, worked well on the passing lanes, often directing the opposition’s possession towards Chivu’s “preferred” areas, where his team feels more secure defensively. During that spell, the cover behind the ball was good, the Inter players shifted well, protected the space in behind and did not give Real’s many one-on-one players the room to attack. For long stretches, Inter seemed to be doing exactly what they had set out to do: play openly without turning the game into a race back towards their own goal.
The problem is that against a team like Real Madrid, doing almost everything right is not enough. Mistakes hurt, and they hurt twice as much, because any loose ball can become a chance. Inter made two in quick succession while building from the back, first through Jones and then through Martínez. Different mistakes, but with the same consequence: Real were given the chance to attack a defence left exposed by the rotations. The first goal came from pressure by the Blancos, who did well to trap the former Liverpool player; the second from Martínez’s attempt to speed up the move, only for him to get caught by Valverde’s high press. What was most interesting, though, was Chivu’s team’s response. Inter did not unravel, did not stop playing. They kept looking for their own solutions, getting shots away several times and forcing Courtois into a series of outstanding saves. The Belgian denied Jones and Carlos Augusto, then produced another big stop late on to keep out Mkhitaryan. Those moments matter because even when the game seemed to be moving towards Real, Inter were still creating enough to pull it back. At the same time, though, the Nerazzurri were taking huge risks. Between the end of the first half and the opening minutes of the second, Bellingham found his way towards goal twice, while Brahim had another huge chance. On both occasions, Chivu and his players came close to paying for their aggression, but Martínez’s decisive interventions kept Real from pulling away for good. Even that, despite the inevitable disappointment of the defeat, matters in the Champions League League Phase, where every goal can make a difference.
Inter therefore came through an evening of contradiction: they were dangerous enough, and consistently enough, to believe they could reopen the game, but at the same time vulnerable enough to have lost it by a much wider margin. It is the paradox of a team that refused to abandon its identity even when it had good reason to sit deeper and protect itself, but that, precisely because of this, had to accept an extremely high level of risk. Then came Carlos Augusto’s goal, which reopened everything. From that moment, particularly over the final ten minutes, Inter pinned Real inside their own area, increasing the pressure and putting several dangerous balls into the box. What was missing was the final pass, the action capable of turning that pressure into an equaliser.
“We came away with our heads held high,” Lautaro Martínez told Sky Sport after the game. It captures part of the evening well. Inter showed they could go toe-to-toe with Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, that they had the tools to trouble them and that they did not need to abandon their identity to compete with one of the strongest teams in Europe. And yet, and yet, it would be wrong to stop there. Perhaps the most important lesson from Madrid is another one: against a team full of players capable of beating a man, attacking the space in behind and turning an apparently harmless situation into a chance, Inter struggled. Taking risks is fine; if this is how Inter want to play, it is unavoidable. But there is very little room for error. The cover behind the ball, the passing lanes, control of the tempo and the confidence in possession can all work perfectly, and then one badly lost ball is enough to put everything back into question. Inter do not leave the Bernabéu feeling inferior. They leave with the sense that they are strong enough to stay in games of this level and with the certainty that, to win them, their margin for error will have to be smaller still. In Madrid they showed they could play as equals. The next step is to give away less.