Even with Brazilian Ronaldo back in their ranks for the first half, Inter Milan were once again unimpressive in a 2-2 derby draw with AC Milan at the San Siro on Saturday night. In their last game before their Champions League quarter-final second leg tie against Manchester United in Milan on Wednesday, Inter gave no indication of the dramatic improvement necessary to give them even an outside hope of overturning the two-goal deficit separating them and United. You now have to go back eight league and cup games to February 7th to find the last time that Inter actually won a match when beating the bottom side in Serie A, Empoli, 5-1.
The story of this match makes familiar reading for anyone who has followed Inter Milan of late. Suspect in defence, confused and disorganised in midfield and ponderous in attack, Inter continue to flounder like a ship which, for all the brilliance of its sailors, badly needs the forceful hand of a singleminded captain at the wheel.
Not that this current AC Milan is a wonderful side. On the contrary, the men in red and black contrived to give Inter the most perfect of starts when French defender Bruno N'Gotty turned an innocuous cross from Inter's Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone into his own net after only seven minutes.
With such a start and with their morale boosted by the return of Ronaldo, playing for only the second time since January 17th, Inter might have been expected to take a hold of the game. Such an expectation, however, fails to allow for the porous nature of the continually re-vamped Inter defence. Within eight minutes, Brazilian Leonardo was able to brilliantly tap in an equaliser following a precise cross from Dane Thomas Helveg.
For much of the next hour, it was AC Milan who dominated, giving one of their best performances of the season. That domination, too, earned its just reward when Leonardo scored his second goal of the night with a well-struck, left footed 53rd minute free kick which beat the defensive wall to fool Inter goalkeeper Pagliuca. Ronaldo was substituted by Nicola Ventola following a disappointing first-half performance. It was the other Brazilian on the pitch, Milan's Leonardo, who turned in a splendid performance. He almost crowned it in the 66th minute with a clever curling shot from the edge of the penalty area that slammed against the crossbar with Pagliuca well beaten.
Inter roused themselves for a final quarter fightback and it earned them a 77th-minute equaliser from Argentine Javier Zanetti after he had been sent through by an excellent pass from Nigerian defender Taribo West.
With a view to Wednesday night, Inter coach Mircea Lucescu took some hope from his side's final 15 minutes. Given the poor performance of the all too obviously unfit Ronaldo and given the poor quality of much of the soccer played by his side on Saturday, the Romanian's optimism is admirable if hardly realistic.
Serie A leaders Lazio blew the chance yesterday to open a commanding lead at the top when they were held to a goalless draw by bottom club Empoli.
But the Rome side still stretched their lead to five points over AC Milan, Parma and Fiorentina. The Florence side wasted their chance of cutting Lazio's lead by crashing 4-1 at Venezia, Uruguayan Alvaro Recoba hitting his first hat-trick for the club.
In Spain, a first-half double from Brazilian striker Rivaldo set Barcelona on their way to an emphatic 3-0 victory over Espanyol that restored their four-point lead in the Spanish first division.
Rivaldo, in inspired form throughout a fiercely contested Nou Camp derby, struck after 15 and 30 minutes, the second from the penalty spot. Patrick Kluivert put the result beyond doubt eight minutes into the second period.
