Chivas With The Uphill Battle In Porto Alegre.

Chivas suffered early on. Inter caught the home side on their back foot, found more space and were able to spend the first ten minutes in Chivas’ half. They even had a shot by Kleber go wide.

But Chivas tried to come back with holding forward (yes, I just made up that position) Bautista trying to slow the game and look for either of the streaking Omars (Bravo or Arellano) in the area but with not much luck. Without much space, Inter’s midfield was marking very well and didn’t allowing the Mexicans to have much of the ball in the final quarter of the pitch.

Most of Inter’s plays went through D’Alessandro’s feet. He was the main cog of this Inter offense and because he was the main threat and distributor of the ball, he was on the synthetic pitch more than anyone else.

But near the end of the first half, Bautista met a long cross on the 18 yard box line for a fantastic lobbing header over Inter goalkeeper Renan. 1-0 to Chivas, and the stadium exploded, fans cheered and the announcers went quiet. A fantastic finish by Bautista and the spectre of a Mexican team winning this competition begins to sink in.

Half time score: Chivas up, 1-0 over Inter.

Chivas pressured Inter when they had the ball early on in the 2nd half. Something that could cause certain desperation among the Inter players. But Inter began to have more possession of the ball and more space on the pitch. Chivas defended themselves and when they attacked, they did it with fewer players, two or three only.

When he was required to be a part of the match, Inter keeper Renan looked shaky and not at all confident of his actions. I wonder if he was a little closer to his line, could he have kept out Bautista’s header?

Alecsandro was taken off in the 2nd half and replaced by Éverton, but I guess Celso Roth was not happy with his performance because only a few moments later, subbed off Éverton and on came Rafael Sobis. I’ve only seen this happen one or twice in my life.

Only a moment later, Kleber crossed the ball into the penalty area and Giuliano met that ball near the 8 yard box and headed it past Chivas keeper Michel to draw his side level. The Inter bench jumped up and the few Inter fans that made the trip to Jalisco, Mexico celebrated. Inter draw level, match now 1-1.

With Inter surging, Chivas couldn’t keep them from coming at them and off a broken free kick play, D’Alessandro crosses the ball into the area, 2nd post, XXXX heads the ball back into the 8 yard box where a diving header by Bolivar sent the ball into the net. Inter with the go ahead goal, Inter now up, 2-1.

And so much for my prediction. I suck again.

In the final 10 minutes, the stadium oddly quiet, Chivas couldn’t seem to cross the half line with the ball in their possession. And Inter would get the ball, play it in small spaces and make it really hard for Chivas to get the ball back.

Chivas seemed to be resigned to this score and would launch the ball from the defense forward to make their offensive players have to fight for headers. Gone were the short passes that made them look so good against U de Chile. And Inter would boot the ball back at Chivas to “ice” the ball and the match.

Final Score: Inter win, 2-1.

I had this match going to Chivas, 2-1. Apparently, I didn’t expect Inter to come out much like they did and in the end the difference, IMO, was the cold finishing on Inter’s part. Chivas had a few chances but didn’t put them away.

Stay tuned, this one is far from over. While Inter have home field advantage next week, never count out a Mexican side in a CONMEBOL tournament.

Category: Tournament News