All good things come to an end. That now includes Juventus’s unbeaten run in the Serie A after the Bianconeri lost at home to Inter to end a streak of 49 consecutive games without defeat. The number 49 which had the final say here as it already halted Arsenal’s Unbeaten run in premier league before. Inter’s Argentinean striking force of Diego Milito and Rodrigo Palacio was able to cap off a glorious second half effort with three goals to earn the important win.
Juventus’ Unbeaten Run Came To An EndJuventus looked in shape to make it lucky number 50 early on after they had a dream start to the game. The Bianconeri caught Inter by surprise in the very first minute of the game. Kwando Asamoah ran onto a Mirco Vucinic through ball and his angled shot fell perfectly into the path of Arturo Vidal, who had the easy task to slot the ball home from 6 yards out.
Inter were still in shock, when Juve had a chance to double their lead. Andrea Pirlo lobbed a ball over the Inter defence for Claudio Marchisio, whose volley shot was saved by Handanovic. Slowly Inter gained their footing and created a few chances themselves. First a Rodrigo Palacio goal was disallowed for a close offside and then Antonio Cassano’s shot came inches close. Juventus, however, safely got to halftime with the one goal lead.
Inter, however, started the second half more motivated and were able to turn their fortunes around. Strong play by Cambiasso and Gargano ensured the nerazzuri controlled most of the possession and this paid off.
An hour within the game, Marchisio pulled Diego Milito down following a free kick and the referee awarded a penalty, which Milito converted himself. Fifteen minutes later the Argentinean scored his second to complete the comeback. Freddy Guarin had an excellent run and his strong shot is parried by Buffon into the feet of the onrushing Milito, who taps the ball in.
Following that goal, Juventus rushed to try and get back on level terms, while Inter were happy to defend. A fantastic shot by Pirlo foced a fantastic save by Handanovic with eight minutes left. Niklas Bendtner also missed a good chance to pull the score even.
However, as Juve committed more bodies forward, they were naturally left more open space at the back and Inter were able to hit them on the counterattack. Yuto Nagamoto plays a through ball for Palacio, who seals the score and the end of the unbeaten run.
With the win, Inter are now just one point behind Juve in the Italian Serie A standings. It will be particularly interesting to see how the champions are going to respond to the setback and the end of their unbeaten run. They were hoping to better Milan’s record unbeaten run of 58 games, but it was Milan’s arch rivals Inter who put an end to it. The irony in football can be beautiful sometimes.