A late Kevin Lasagna strike mared Roberto Mancini’s 200th game in charge as Inter Milan and Carpi played out a 1-1 draw at the San Siro on Sunday.
Rodrigo Palacio tucked away his first league goal of the season from close-range with just over five minutes remaining before the interval, after receiving the ball in the six-yard box following a deflected effort from Ivan Perišic.
Carpi’s hopes of getting something out of the match diminished in the 82nd minute after Lorenzo Pasciuti received his second yellow card of the match for a late tackle on João Miranda. Though despite the one man advantage, Inter failed to see the game out and allowed Lasagna to get in behind their defence and slot a clinical stoppage time finish past Samir Handanovic.
The Nerazzurri remain winless in their last three Serie A attempts, while Carpi are unbeaten in their last four league outings.
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Inter beginning to run out of luck
Nine out of 12 of Internazionale’s league wins this season have finished 1-0, suggesting the Milanese side have scraped through and run its luck many a time in 2015-16. Following a 1-0 defeat at home to Sassuolo and two 1-1 draws, it appears the Nerazzurri are beginning to run out of luck.
Having dominated possession, Mancini’s men did not really test Carpi goalkeeper Vid Belec all too much throughout the 90 minutes and did not blow the away side off the park with efficient team play. But even without doing so, Inter Milan would usually have come out on top and claimed maximum points. The game against Carpi differed to that, much like the recent matches against Sassuolo and Atalanta.
Failure to close out the game against the Biancorossi displayed Inter’s diminishing fortune as the current Serie A campaign has worn on. Lasagna’s late strike not only highlighted the home side’s major flaws, but also the fact that Mancini and Inter cannot continue to rely on scraping past opponents with slim 1-0 victories if they wish to finish in the top three.
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Belec comes up big again for Carpi, whilst Jerry Mbakogu is improving
As previously mentioned, visiting goalkeeper Belec was not forced into making too many stops. When called upon though, the Slovenian came to his side’s aid in brilliant fashion, with one particularly vital save to deny a late Felipe Melo header from close range, to ensure the Nerazzurri did not go 2-0 up late in the game.
The former Inter man was one of Carpi’s best performers on the day, as has been the case several times so far this term.
Another who impressed during the match was one of last season’s promotion heroes for the side from Emilia-Romagna, Mbakogu. Although the Nigerian did not get on the scoresheet, he often won his individual battles against Jeison Murillo and Juan Jesus.
The 23-year-old’s physicality rivalled that of the burly centre-backs, and Mbakogu was unfortunate to have an early goal ruled out due to a foul from teammate Matteo Mancosu on Murillo in the build up. After warming the bench for much of the duration of the campaign so far, Mbakogu now appears to be finding his feet in Serie A.
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Inter not good enough for Scudetto but can finish top three
If it had not already been confirmed prior to this match, it can now be firmly stated that Inter Milan are not good enough to win the Scudetto this season.
Despite improving moderately in recent weeks, Mancini’s side does not create enough opportunities and link up sufficiently with the attack. While Mauro Icardi is a clinical and deadly poacher, he does not receive anywhere near enough service in order to flourish and is not the type of player who gets involved in his side’s play from deep either, meaning he is an isolated figure up front most of the time in matches. The game against Carpi did not differ from this.
Also, Inter often find themselves winning matches simply due to the form of Handanovic in the Nerazzurri goal. The 31-year-old has easily been Mancini’s best performer this season, and in order for the side to claim a Champions League berth in 2016-17, better performances are required from his teammates.
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