Direct Chronicle
Viktoria Plzen resisted for just over half an hour in a packed San Siro, a time in which Barcelona harbored the hope of an Inter stumble that would give it life in the Champions League.
If any team is located next to the unexpected disaster, that is the
Nerozazurro team
, which has a long resume of dislikes.
So that stretch of anxiety fed some Blaugrana hope.
But Inter pushed and pushed, finished off, insisted on an encirclement against Stanek's goal, the troubled Czech goalkeeper for whom not even a crowded defense helped him move calmly through the game.
Until Mkhitaryan's goal came and the sun came out in Milan (4-0).
Inter will be in the round of 16 and Barcelona falls to the Europa League.
INTInter
4
Dzeko (Joaquin Correa, min. 70), Andre Onana, Alessandro Bastoni, Calhanoglu (Kristjan Asllani, min. 71), Lautaro Martínez (Lukaku, min. 82), Denzel Dumfries, Mkhitaryan (Gagliardini, min. 82), Dimarco ( Robin Gosens, minute 76), Skriniar, Barella and Acerbi
VIK Viktoria Plzen
0
Jindrich Stanek, Mohamed Tijani (Vaclav Jemelka, min. 51), Pavel Bucha, Fortune Akpan Bassey (Tomas Chory, min. 45), Lukas Kalvach (Modou N'Diaye, min. 70), Milan Havel, Hejda, Erik Jirka ( Libor Holik, min 45), Ludek Pernica, John Mosquera and A. Vlkanova
Goals
1-0 min.
35: Mkhitaryan.
2-0 min.
42: Dzeko.
3-0 min.
66: Dzeko.
4-0 min.
86: Lukaku.
Referee
Andreas Ekberg
Yellow cards John Mosquera (min. 46) and Ludek Pernica (min. 49)
Inter was tenacious and insistent, but above all incisive.
He had perhaps more rhythm than football and from there he ran over Viktoria, who despite not scoring points in the first four days of the competition, jumped onto the field with options to hold on to a third place that would allow them to rejoin the Europa League.
He was never in a position to achieve it, other than through resistance, to endure against Inter's onslaught, thriving above all on the left flank with Federico Dimarco, a little motor, and at the front of the attack with Lautaro and Dzeko, a couple complementary.
Stanek kept his team alive in Inter's first attempts, even going so far as to unsettle the Italian team's shooters, who were already pushing with everything shortly after the start of the game.
That is why the goal was born from an incursion by the central defender Bastoni, who came with a drive to the baseline to look for a cross to the far post that Mkhitaryan headed into the net while Dzeko acted as a decoy for the Czech defense.
Stanek could have responded better.
There he finished everything for Viktoria and, incidentally, for Barcelona.
No one stopped at Inter, certainly not the inevitable Dimarco, who set up Dzeko for the Bosnian striker to score the second home goal shortly before the break.
The break invited Viktoria to launch a change of plan.
He looked for the goal and undressed behind.
Mkhitaryan was able to do even more damage with a shot to the post, Lautaro did not stop stalking and Romelu Lukaku warmed up on the wing to reappear after two months out.
Before Inzaghi gave him the field, a little less than a quarter of an hour, Lautaro connected with Dzeko to define the interista classification with the third goal.
Then it was Lukaku who left credentials with a futsal pivot action in which he leaned on former Sevilla player Correa to outwit the entire Viktoria defense.
It was so simple that it even seemed humiliating.
At that point Viktoria had neither faith nor football.
In a group with Bayern, Inter and Barcelona, the leader of the Czech league, undefeated after twelve games, has accumulated 20 goals against and just three for.
In this multi-speed football Europe, there are environments with a long football tradition that are not able to compete at certain levels.
Barcelona did not do their homework before and stayed at the expense of something more than a miracle.
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