MILAN (AP) — One year can make a big difference. Nine months to be exact.
Last season, Inter Milan reached the Champions League final with thrilling wins over Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
On Tuesday, the Italian giants limped out of the competition with a disappointing performance. Lost 2-1 at home to Bodo/Glimt They were eliminated 5-2 on aggregate in the play-off round, in what is said to be one of the biggest upsets in Champions League history.
This wasn’t the first big upset this small Norwegian team has pulled off this season. Victory over Manchester City and Atletico Madrid and a draw with Borussia Dortmund.
“We know there is a lot of competition in the Champions League, and if a team reaches this stage it means they have something to offer,” Inter coach Cristian Chivu said. “And they proved it. They showed it twice against Dortmund, against Madrid, against City and against us.
“It’s a team with energy. We could have done better in Norway and we could have done better today, but unfortunately it didn’t go our way. We did everything we could to move forward, and that’s football.”
There were signs from last season that all was not well at Inter. The club reached the Champions League final, but lost 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain. They lost to AC Milan in the semi-finals of the Italian Cup and finished runners-up to Napoli in Serie A.
Director Simone Inzaghi replaced by KivuHis previous senior management role was in Parma for only a few months.
The expected revamp of an aging squad did not take place, and Inter did not spend much in the transfer market, only signing Ange-Joan Bony, Luis Enrique, Petar Sučić and Manuel Akanji.
This season, Inter are 10 points clear at the top of Serie A and appear to be closing in on the domestic title, but are struggling in the Champions League.
The Nerazzurri got off to a great start in the continental tournament by winning their first three games, but then lost four on the bounce and finished the league phase in 10th place, just one point away from automatically qualifying for the Round of 16.
Inter midfielder Nicolo Barella said of the play-off defeat: “Bodo won both games so they deserved to advance.” “They didn’t give us too much trouble today…The most difficult thing was to score and we couldn’t do that.
“Of course there is disappointment, because our desire is to fight on all fronts. We tried, but they were better. One more goal would have put us ahead and saved us from this play-off, but this is the new Champions League.”
Inter needed at least two goals to advance after losing 3-1 in the first leg on Tuesday, but they pushed from the start. They had many chances, but Bodø/Glimt goalkeeper Nikita Haikin’s solid defense and great reflexes prevented them from scoring.
In fact, most statistics apart from the scoreline show Inter dominating the contest. They had 32 attempts compared to their opponents’ seven and completed 552 passes compared to 192.
“We have to praise and congratulate our opponents because they did what they were supposed to do and did it very well,” Chivu said. “You know the level of the Champions League is high and if you’re not flexible in front of goal, your opponents will punish you.”
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