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[Nentsia]

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11 Machiavelli's vs Inter Milan

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I decided to continue a bit with my season with AC Milan, which is near to its end and my team is leading in the Serie A, followed by Inter Milan and Juventus. The first time I faced my big rival from Milan this season, the game ended in 1-1. I was not to happy about that result since it was a home match for me, which means Inter managed to snag a point at my home. The bookmakers predicted a big win chance for Inter Milan in the next game. More importantly however, Inter is also my only remaining rival for the Serie A title (Juventus is too far behind). Even much more important: if I win this game, AC Milan wins the Serie A title. The entire season compressed in this single Milanese city derby. The Gods wanted it to be this way.

The Great Red Wall vs The Great Blue Wall

One thing my AC Milan and Mancini's Internazionale have in common this season is that they owe their success to their solid defenses. AC Milan conceded only 10 goals throughout the season so far, and Inter Milan only 19. Inter is the most scoring team of the Serie A with 61 goals, and my team ranks 3rd in that department with 53 goals. Before the game, both my goalkeeper and Inter's goalkeeper had an impressive streak of clean sheets behind their name.

Throughout the season, Inter Milan usually employed its 4-1-2-3 formation, making use of its fast wingers and the deadly Mauro Icardi as a lone striker in the centre. In midfield, typical for Mancini, they deployed a bunch of bone-crunching defensive midfielders along with one guy who knows what to do with the ball. My AC Milan adhered to Machiavellianism this season: the team could be a ''fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves''. My formation was determined by my opponent to a large degree. Usually, I employed a 4-1-2-3, or a 5-3-2, 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-2. The game before I beat Genoa while deploying a 3-5-2 that pressed in midfield, and for the big Finale of the season I opted to adapt again to the all-too predictable formula of Mancini. I mirrored his 4-1-2-3 in order to neutralize it. Mancini also made all kinds of nasty comments in the press about me (he is one of my greatest haters), so I responded by saying all kinds of respectful stuff about the guy.

My 4-1-2-3 differed from Mancini's in one crucial aspect. My version was only a 4-1-2-3 on paper, but in reality it was a completely reactive formation that adapted itself on the pitch to the movements of Inter Milan. The full-backs tracked Inter's wingers, Romagnoli (my tallest central defender) had the task to mark Icardi ''from the dressing room to the parking lot'', my own wingers were ordered to stick to Inter's wing-backs; and the team as a whole was instructed to drop deep and stay close to its own goal - luring Inter Milan forward while giving away no vulnerable spaces. Montolivo was designated as the Director of the team: I glued him to his position in front of the defense, and ensured that all defenders gave him the ball and that he was the only player on the team allowed to send long passes forward.

Inter dominates the opening phase

The first 20 minutes belonged to Inter Milan. Inter managed to get some first shots on goal and a corner kick because confusion arose on my flanks as their wing-backs rushed forward while their wingers dropped deep. As Inter's winger dropped deep, he dragged my full-back out of position, after which Inter's wing-back would run into that space. My wingers did not stay close enough to them, allowing them to receive the pass and dribble into my penalty box to cause some panic. At the same time, my team was careless in ball posession. My wingers and lone striker stood isolated from eachother when in ball posession, making it almost impossible to advance much further beyond the half line.

The game started to improve for me when I made some defensive changes to keep the flanks closed, combined with instructing my wing-backs to provide more support on the wings to keep ball posession. Some crosses were delivered and the team got a corner kick. Inter Milan meanwhile struggled to find space to attack into, and occasionally had to watch out for my counter attacks. Schmid on the wing and Bacca roaming in the center preyed on every opportunity to receive the long ball when Inter was on my half with large numbers.

Late in the 1st half, my team assumed a little more ball posession. My midfielders, with Montolivo as the main playmaker, circulated the ball in Inter's half of the pitch, keeping posession, and patiently searching for space to open up. Cunning as eleven foxes they passed the ball around, horizontally, luring Inter Milan's impatient players to chase it, and then the space emerged on the left flank where Hector ran into. He received the pass, rushed into the side of the penalty box, sent the cross, perfectly placed in mid-air for Carlos Bacca to volley it past Handanovic. It was a beauty of a goal, after a long, patient attack. The best of it all was that it occurred in the 42nd minute, a perfect timing to take the lead. It makes it impossible for Inter to respond quickly because of half-time, and my team gets the chance to regroup and develop a strategy for the 2nd half.

Sabotaging the game

In the second half then, my job was to sabotage the game, frustrate the opponent, and to sit it out until the final whistle. Some nasty fouls were made on both sides, which was funny because every Inter player that got booked I instructed the team to provoke them specifically - hoping that a hot-headed idiot like Medel would take a red card. Machiavelli argued that if you want to be succesful, you will also need to know how to be cunning, and know how to use the opposite of virtue in order to master your fate so that fortune will befall on you. So my players turned malicious when they had too. From about the 65th minute they played with a bunker-mentality, keeping most players between the ball and my own goal. Yellow cards were taken, Schmid faked an injury to Inter's frustration, time was wasted, and Inter Milan could only come up with some distance shots out of sheer desperation.

In the final few minutes it did get tense and I decided to completely park a bus in front of my goal for the remaining minutes, but it was worth it. The game ended and my team won the derby with 0-1 and thereby winning the Serie A league title. They had not given away a single real scoring opportunity to Inter, and they struck at the most opportune moment to win the match. Critics labelled the match as boring, terrible to watch, and they found my team's performance unimpressive. Technically, it was a poor game. But there was a plan, and it was executed with success. Of course, after the game, Mancini had nothing good to say about me. But I could barely hear what he said under the loud congratulations of AC Milan legends such as Kaka, Ancelotti, and Marco van Basten.

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