Manchester City – Inter Milan: Tactical Battle Between Guardiola & Inzaghi Ends In Entertaining Goalless Draw (0-0)

Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan returned to the Etihad to take on Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in a tense 0-0 draw, marking their second encounter since the 2023 Champions League final. Under the new UEFA Champions League format, the match showcased contrasting styles: City’s dominance in possession and high pressing versus Inter’s compact defense and sharp counter-attacks. Both teams crafted opportunities but were unable to find the decisive touch.

Tactical analysis and match report by Gaurav Krishnan. 

Pep Guardiola vs Simone Inzaghi always brings about the best of both worlds of possession vs position. Guardiola has seen many a team visit the Etihad looking to get the better of his Manchester City side and find a way to play through City’s possession-based play & their aggressive pressing and high defensive line. Inter Milan boss Inzaghi was the latest manager to come up against the Citizens looking to get some purchase on City’s home turf.

Inter finished last season as champions of the Serie A and it’s fairly apparent that Inzaghi has had time to forge his imprint & philosophy on the side and get them playing the kind of football he wants them to play. Using fluid rotations, clever off-the-ball positioning & movement Inter are deadly on the break and after forcing turnovers, something which has been a hallmark of Inzaghi’s counter-attacking imprint. Inter can do some serious damage.

For City, the last time they lost a game in the Champions League in normal time was against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in March 2022 and their home record is even more impressive losing their last game at the Etihad six years ago in April 2018 to Lyon. So it’s fair to say that the odds were stacked against Inter to get any purchase out of the game on this particular night under the lights at Etihad. 

However, as Inzaghi looked for redemption after losing out to Guardiola in the Champions League final two seasons ago, Inter created their share of openings in the first half while Man City had the lionshare of possession. But it was more about the Sky Blues failing to convert their chances and Inter not taking theirs as well with the chances they managed to create with Thuram especially being very wasteful. 

Guardiola set up City in a 3-2-4-1 shape with Ederson in goal with Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol in central defense. Rico Lewis and Rodri lined up in the double pivot with Savinho at right wing and Jack Grealish at left wing with Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne in attacking midfield while Erling Haaland led the line up front. 

Inzaghi’s Inter lined up in a 3-5-2 formation. Yann Sommer started in goal with a back three of Alessandro Bastoni, Francesco Acerbi and Yann Bisseck. Carlos Augusto and Matteo Darmian started at left wing-back and right wing-back respectively while the midfield three comprised Piotr Zielinski, Hakan Calhanoglu and Nicolo Barella. Marcus Thuram and Mehdi Taremi lined up as strikers with Taremi named ahead of Lautaro Martinez with the Argentine forward named on the bench. 

Inter’s deep build-up rotations against City’s high press

It was an interesting battle between City’s high press and Inter trying to break through it. Inter looked to play out of City’s high press utilising a deep build-up using their positional rotations to trouble City. One of Inter’s midfield three of Barella, Calhanoglu or Zielinski would drop into the back three drawing out a press from City’s front line of Haaland, Bernardo Silva and De Bruyne. This created space in between the lines to play a pass that would bypass City’s press. After the midfielder dropped into the back three and City’s attacking line was baited, Inter would find a pass to the free midfielders creating a 2 v 1 against Rodri in the middle of the pitch. 

Inter’s positional rotations to play through City’s press. Zielinski drops into the back three as Bastoni moves wide. City’s front line is drawn to press Inter’s defenders man-to-man with their high press. Acerbi plays the ball breaking the lines to Barella where Barella and Calhanoglu have a 2v1 against Rodri in the middle of the pitch.

The randomness of Inter’s rotations was enough to throw City off and make it difficult for Guardiola’s side to press man-to-man. 

Meanwhile, City tried to press effectively in an attempt to block the passing lanes of Inter’s deep build. City got their press right when they stayed compact enough in their pressing shape to suffocate the passing lanes that denied any space for Inter’s random movement & to stop passes in between the lines. 

It was quite interesting tactically speaking to watch this battle of City’s high pressing vs Inter’s movement. At times Bastoni would move out wide as City pressed centrally and man to man, this would stretch the pitch which meant that Inter had time on the ball for Bastoni to play a direct pass towards the Inter forwards who were making runs in behind the City backline.

However, despite everything being said about Inter’s fluid build-up and rotations they alarmingly had their lowest xG & threat difference coupled with their deepest defensive line & least touches in the final third in two seasons and they lost the ball 31 times in the danger zone, as the tweet below reveals. 

Inter tonight has the lowest xG and threat difference in two seasons. Add the deepest defensive line and the lowest share of touches in the final third. Fluid buildup? They lost possession 31 times in the 'danger zone' pic.twitter.com/asOML58rjy

— markstats (@markrstats) September 18, 2024

The Ping Pong Of Turnovers

As expected, City had most of the ball as compared to Inter – your typical possession vs position argument. Inter stayed compact in their 5-3-2 shape without the ball when City had the ball inside Inter’s half. The 5-3-2 block suffocated City but such is the nature of Guardiolista tiki-taka that it meant that City would try to pass sometimes too intricately through Inter’s centrally compact low block. 

This led to a game of several turnovers at both ends of the pitch from both City winning the ball via their high-press on Inter and Inter winning the ball back from City in their own half and transitioning to attack almost immediately.  

City get their high press right resulting in a turnover. Inter attempt a deep build-up from the back with Barella and Calhanoglu dropping into the back three. A combination of Haaland, Bernardo Silva and Savinho block out the passing lanes behind them suffocating play for the ball to move wide to Augusto as Calhanoglu and Acerbi can’t find a pass between City’s press while the other City players stay compact enough. Augusto is suffocated on the flank leading to a turnover with a pass that goes straight to Rodri.

The stats reveal the back-and-forth nature of play and high turnovers in the game – Inter had 9 interceptions to City’s 5 while both sides had 47 recoveries each. Meanwhile, City had 10 recoveries in their attacking third to Inter’s 1 and Inter had 36 recoveries in their defensive third compared to City with 13 in theirs. 

Furthermore, Inter lost the ball 48 times in their defensive half clearly indicating City’s press was rather effective. While the game also ping-ponged in midfield with Inter losing the ball 26 times in midfield while City lost the ball 23 times in the middle of the pitch. 

City also navigated Inter’s counter attacks after turnovers with their effective offside trap. City’s defense were in sync as they stepped up effectively to leave Thuram and the Inter attack in offside positions. As is the case with Guardiola’s high line, it involves intelligent and proactive use of the offside trap. Inter were caught offside 3 times by City’s back three. 

Lack of finishing chances by both sides & Haaland left biting the dust

City’s offside trap aside, both sides created chances which could have been converted although they weren’t very clear-cut per se. City of course created the clearer openings and chances but Inter did manage quite a few themselves. Marcus Thuram was far too wasteful with the half-chances he had. He had a tame effort on target in the fifth minute while he skied a sidefoot shot over the bar in the 40th minute. 

Despite there being no goals scored there was plenty of goalmouth action. City had 22 shots to Inter’s 13. Out of those shots, City had 5 shots on target to Inter’s 4. However, both sides weren’t clinical enough and couldn’t find the back of the net. Inter created a lot of half-chances in the game. Apart from Thuram’s efforts, Carlos Augusto struck at Ederson from a tight angle in the 45+1’ minute and Henrikh Mkhitaryan blazed an effort over the bar in the 76th minute which was perhaps Inter’s best chance on the night. 

Erling Haaland had a header saved by Ederson in the 19th minute and another shot that went narrowly wide in the 35th minute. However, apart from those chances Haaland was left isolated and feeding on scraps on the night; Inter definitely managed Haaland well leaving him biting the dust. The Norwegian frontman had just 14 touches in the entire game.

The second half was all about Inter closing the result; Inter had only 3 shots in the second half. Substitute Phil Foden had a couple of pops at goal from distance in the second forty-five. Meanwhile, Inter played on the counter in the second half, Lautaro Martinez came on and had a shot on goal in the 83rd minute but it didn’t trouble Ederson in the City goal who saved comfortably. 

At the other end, perhaps City’s best chance of the game came late on via the substitute Ilkay Gundogan whose header at goal from a Gvardioal cross was saved by Sommer in the 89th minute.

In truth, both sides weren’t ruthless in front of goal while Inter’s steadfast defense did its job to thwart City and Haaland and prevent them from scoring.

Takeaways

This was an admirable display by Inter who managed to ruffle City at the Etihad. Inter had 10 shots in the first half, becoming the first side to have 10 or more shots in the first half of a Champions League game at the Etihad since Monaco in February 2017 (via Opta Analyst). Inzaghi’s men managed to shut out City, which doesn’t happen very often in the Champions League and could have snatched a goal as well. So there were plenty of positives for Inzaghi to take back to Milan in what was arguably their toughest game of the group stage. 

For City, the result wasn’t bad although they would feel that they should’ve won the game. There were certainly some issues like Haaland’s isolation and their lack of end product in front of goal while also overpassing & overcooking it in the final third but this was yet another game where the Pep Guardiola juggernaut marched on undefeated. Man City’s unbeaten run in the Champions League has now increased to 24 matches (W16 D8) as per Opta Analyst– not too shabby.