Hello Interfriends,

With 8 matchdays played in Serie A, Inter find themselves 7 points behind Juventus (Who play against Roma tommorow) after yet another 2-2 draw this time at the hands of Lecce. Once again Inter squanderd a 2 goal lead as Adriano and Martins put Inter up 2-0 by the 33rd minute of the first half only two conceed two goals to Bojinov and lost more valuable points. To add insult to injury, Adriano had the chance to make it 3-2 in the second half but his shot went over the bar even though he was in perfect position in the box!

Mancini may have instilled some great play but he is not briging home the points and this is now worrying as Inter have 6 ties in 8 games. Mancini needs to take responsability for this and put forth some corrective action. Turnover is one thing, but Mancini in this match made some mistakes. Favalli for example had his best match of the season against Milan, yet Mancini sat him on the bench for an out of form Pasquale on the left. This caused great havoc for Inter as Stankovic on the left does not provide cover and Pasquale was just not up to the task of picking up the pieces. Bottom line, Inter have now given up a two goal lead twice thus far and these are precious points lost.

For this match, Mancini went back to the standard 4-4-2 formation with Fontana in net. Zanetti, Cordoba, Materazzi, Pasquale on defence. Veron and Cambiasso in the center of midfield with Stankovic on the left and Van Der Meyde on the right. Adriano and Martins getting the start up front. Lecce on the other side played in there standard attacking formation with 3 strikers.

Inter started this match at full force and once again is a joy to watch going forward. Right from the start Inter looked for the goal and almost scored at the 3rd minute. Only moments later however Cambiasso steals a great ball in the midfield and runs down the left side and crosses to Martins. The youngster does well to cross again to Adriano at the far post and puts a header in to make it 1-0 at the 5th minute. Inter could have doubled the lead at the 7th minute but the Lecce goalkeeper made a miracle save on a hard left footer from Adriano.

Lecce however did not give up and came back into the game. They did it by attacking via the flanks where Stankovic and Van Der Meyde did more going forward than coming back allowing the Lecce attackers playing with 2 wide front players to press on Zanetti on the right and above all Pasquale on the left. Infact Fontana made two miracle saves of his own to keep the scoreline in Inter's favor.

The game was played with both teams going forward but it was once again Cambiasso who steals the ball in the midfield and runs straight at the defence. He passes to Martins in the box and the youngster makes it 2-0 as he puts the ball to the opposite corner past the keeper at the 33rd minute. The goal should have been the knockout punch but Bojinov scores only 3 minutes later as he shoots from outside the box to score past Fontana who was screened on the shot by Materazzi. The half ended 2-1 for Inter.

The second half starts with the same players and Lecce pick up where they left off scoring at the 4th minute of the second half. Lecce pick apart the inter defence and send a through ball into the box that Bojinov runs onto and puts it past Fontana from a tough angle to make it 2-2. Only moments earlier Martins had a chance to score but the keeper saved his shot and conceeded a corner.

Lecce keep going forward putting pressure on the left side as Stankovic struggles to help out on the defensive end while Pasquale does little to hold the left flank in cover. Mancini takes out Van Der Meyde who did not do much in this match and brings on Davids, changing the formation to a diamond midfield with Stankovic moving behind the strikers instead of on the left.

The move adds more substance to Inter's play and Zeman is forced to call his back line deeper and not play so high opting to defend there area and play more of a counter-attack style. Inter does no longer can find the space they had before and once again could not find the go-ahead goal. Adriano should have scored the 3-2 winner but some how he incredibly shot over the bar after Veron found him unmarked on the penalty spot. With the miss Inter's hopes of claiming a win faded as they were unable to create much more in the final 20 minutes of the match.

As you can see we had the chances to win, but blowing a 2 goal lead once again is unacceptable at this level and its costing Inter dearly. It may be early days still but with a Juve win tommorow we could find Inter 10 points back and that is not a small gap no matter what time of year it is. On to Saturday where Inter will face Mancini's old team.. Lazio.

Eddy Lio