Champions Journalist fan reporter Francesco Sarchi was at the San Siro on Wednesday to see his side lose to Liverpool, But he's not giving up just yet
It’s not easy to write about a defeat, especially when your team has been in control for the whole match. Sat in the San Siro at the end of the game, I looked up to see a stat that said neither goalkeeper had made a save. Was it a joke? No, this is just the way the big teams punish you: two shots, two goals. That’s all, folks.
In Italy we have a legendary singer called Max Pezzali who, like me, is an Inter supporter and from Pavia. In 1997 he released a song with his old band, 883, that was calledLa Dura Legge Del Gol. It includes these lines: “The law of the goal is tough –you play very well but if you don’t have the defence, they score and they win.They stay in it, but at the very first opportunity they come up and they score”. It sounds better in Italian, but the point is that this is exactly what happened on Wednesday night.
OK, maybe that was my inner Interista spirit talking. If I have to be fair, a few seconds before Firmino’s header I said to the people around me in the stands, “They’re toying with us, like a cat with a mouse.” Yes, for the whole match we played at the same level as Liverpool but, sadly, they were playing at 60% of their real potential and we didn’t convert our chances. Obviously there’s the second leg at Anfield to come and anything can happen. That’s an Inter trademark – and I will hope for some unpredictable exploits.
Returning to Wednesday, there was a nice moment during the warm-up when the crowd cheered Mr Klopp and he smiled back as a greeting. I love his rock ’n’ roll football and his genuine and honest personality. Only the Champions League can give these moments to football fans all around Europe.