Juventus have been unbeatable in Serie A for almost two years but their run of 49 games unbeaten came to a surprise end against Inter at the weekend.
The ‘Old Lady’ were looking to make it 50 games unbeaten when they took on Inter Milan at the Juventus Stadium. Their impressive record looked to continue as Juventus took the lead after just 19 seconds, thanks to Arturo Vidal. But a second half showing of 3 goals, a brace from Diego Milito and one for Rodrigo Palacio, caused Juventus to suffer their first loss at their new stadium.
A huge factor in the shock win can be put down to Inter boss Andrea Stramaccioni’s tactics. It was a victory made all the sweeter considering the Inter manager had claimed that before the game Juventus had belittled his strategic ability. “I tried to prepare [for] the game in the best way possible and it’s also annoying to hear sarcasm from Juve before the match on Inter’s tactical approach. At the final whistle perhaps Marotta might think differently. I just want respect.”
“They were sarcastic comments about how I was ‘tactically carefree’ – we prepare games in every detail during training. Inter forced Juventus into real problems, who had dominated Italian football for the last two years. We won regardless of incidents, which I promised I won’t talk about, so I think we deserve some respect.”
Stramaccioni surprised even his players by opting for a daring 3-4-3 formation but was more than willing to reveal the thoughts behind his masterminding of such a result. “It was not a coup de theatre, but rather the best way of stopping Juve dominating for the whole 90 minutes,” he said. “I think Inter did that, as we remained dangerous with the trident and caused them constant problems, which gave no reference points to the Juve defenders.”
“That’s the way I prepared and read the game. We could’ve lost of course, but that’s just the way I chose to approach it. I knew full well I’d play 3-4-3. I thought Juventus would have an advantage by knowing our tactics beforehand, so why should I make it easier for them?”
“Our strength is that we are versatile and have a basic approach that can then be adjusted for each individual situation. When I told the strikers I wanted to play this way, it perhaps surprised them too, but became an enormously motivating force and everyone stepped up.”
“By lowering their right winger to control our trident, which is what we wanted, it created more space for us to cause them trouble down the left and fortunately we achieved it.”
Inter now sit one solitary point behind defending champions Juventus at the top of the table.
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image: © batrax
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