Liverpool’s Champions League quest for success continues with a trip back to Italy and a familiar ground from just months ago...albeit against a very different side they haven’t faced in a decade and a half.
During the group stage it was AC Milan and the San Siro - featuring Nat Phillips with an iconic dragback - whereas this time it’s Inter Milan the opponents and the stadium name therefore the Giuseppe Meazza, in the last-16 first leg.
The Reds are facing the reigning Italian champions, recently knocked off top spot in Serie A but still well in the running for another title. It’s a three-way fight there, but the Nerazzurri haven’t come through recent tests well - a derby defeat to AC, and a draw with Napoli. All three sides are within two points at the top. On a more localised level of form, it’s three wins from six in all competitions for Inter heading into this game.
Inter are under the management this term of Simone Inzaghi, having replaced Antonio Conte in the summer. There are definite similarities between the two, certainly in terms of tactical set-up, but key differences between this season and last perhaps have the 2010 Champions League winners at a marginally lower level overall this time around.
Both managers opt for a 3-5-2, for example, but where Conte had his side structured to be near-impossible to beat and hard to break down, Inzaghi has looked to be more offence-first where possible and - maybe naturally, being outside the very elite group of coaches - hasn’t seen his team be quite as certain of victory in tight games.
Already Inter have lost more games in the league this season than they did in the whole of last year, but then by contrast, Inter finished rock bottom of their Champions League group under Conte and against two of the same three rivals this time around, finished second to reach this last-16 stage.
Not only is it in coaching style and substance where Inter are a little less than a year ago, but a clear downgrade in direct transfer replacements can be seen, too. This was out of necessity with financial restraints, and part of the reason for Conte’s departure.
Edin Dzeko has long proven himself one of the game’s top centre-forwards as a goalscorer, target man, link player and brute force specimen, but he’s beaten in every regard by Romelu Lukaku’s form for Inter in 2020/21. That’s why Chelsea forked out almost £100m for him, after all.
Similarly, Achraf Hakimi is one of the game’s absolute best attacking right-backs, a level above where Denzel Dumfries has reached, even if the Dutchman has certain traits which make him one of Inter’s biggest threats.
The wing-back battle on both sides will be an intriguing test, with Andy Robertson against Dumfries an exercise in endurance and shuttle sprints no doubt - but where Robertson generally hits the line of the penalty box with his overlapping runs, his opposite number in an Inter shirt will attack the far post and even the centre of the six-yard box when given the chance. His movement is top-rate, and a potential route to goal for the Italians in this tie.
The loss of Nicolo Barella in midfield is a huge one for Inter, a player capable of linking play, driving to the box from deep and also doing all the dogged, dirty defensive work that will be needed. It’ll likely place more emphasis on Lautaro Martinez showing not just his technical traits, but his positional intelligence in picking up play between the lines, before joining Dzeko in attack.
And in defence, a more expansive passing-out approach comes from the fit-again Alessandro Bastoni, a fantastic option for club and country now - but behind him, Samir Handanovic appears to be rapidly approaching the end of his top-tier career. Still positionally excellent and aerially dominant, it’s in the lower reaches of his goalmouth, close to his feet, where the 37-year-old has been found wanting with more frequency - see Olivier Giroud’s derby day matchwinner as a prime example.
Inside the dressing room at least, Liverpool will no doubt acknowledge they are marginal favourites for the tie as a whole and Inzaghi has tried to intimate as such.
But they face a well-drilled, at-times explosive side playing on home soil first off, making the biggest initial challenge to ensure they remain at least in control of the tie, even if not ahead, by the time the return takes place at Anfield.
