Hello Interfriends,

Inter have earned a second win in Serie A with a 3-1 win over Udinese at the San Siro. With 2 goals by Adriano each one better than the next were made even more spectacular since he just got off a 12 hour flight back home from National Team duty. The story of the day however is the goal by Christian Vieri who scored the third goal of the match and his first since March 7, 2004.

With the past week full of National Team dut, Mancini had the full squad at his disposal for only a few days leading up to this match. Given conditions of returning players as well as defensive problems to resolve Mancini made various changes to the lineup leaving out a few starters. Toldo, Stankovic, J. Zanetti and Cordoba all started the match from the bench as Mancini plays Fontana in goal with Ze Maria, Burdisso, Materazzi and Favalli as the back four.

Mancini needs the opposition be filtered through the midfield and put C.Zanetti and Cambiasso in the middle with Veron on the left, Van Der Meyde on the right with Vieri and Adriano up front. Udinese responds with a 3-5-2 formation with Jankoulovski and Felipe wide players but missing important players like Pizarro and Iaquinta.

Inter get off to a great start as Adriano secures the match in the first 11 minutes. Despite just arriving from Brazil late Saturday, Adriano shows why he is the best player in the world right now by scoring two spectacular goals. His first comes at the 7th minute as he scores a powerful free kick with a blast that curls to the left of the keeper. His second is pure magic as Adriano runs ball on foot for 70 meters beating 3-4 players and then shooting past the Udinese Keeper from outside the box!!

Two amazing goals that light up the San Siro and allow Inter to control the game and save some energy and effort for Valencia and Milan still to come later this week. Udinese never really threaten in the first half allowing Inter to control well and went forward with the another mission: Recuperate Vieri!

Montella who scored yesterday tied Vieri with 118 goals so it was up to Vieri to take back his record and the team rallied around him in support. Vieri ran alot, made space and had some good touches but was denied a goal in the first half by De Sanctis.

The second half starts in favor of Udinese who with one substition seem to resolve there problems as DiMichele comes in for Felipe and Jankolovski returns to the left side. Udinese now playing with 3 strikers begin to pressure the Inter defence and with Mauri who gets a through ball that beats the Inter defence re-opens the match making it 2-1 at the 5 minute mark of the second half.

With DiMichele playing high and Mauri making many central run's Udinese went forward looking to rescue a point and for 5-10 minutes had Inter on the back foot and the defence once again making mistakes. Mancini decides to plug the gap bringing on J.Zanetti for Ze Maria, Davids for Van Der Meyde and Cordoba for Favalli.

The changes work and Inter take control again allowing Vieri to score the third goal at the 15th minute of the second half. Vieri collects a through ball and enters the area while at the same time shielding off a defender. He cooly slots the ball past the keeper to make it 3-1. It was an important goal for Vieri who finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel but also very important for the team as it takes Udinese out of the match and securing the 3 points.

With the win, Inter start off a tough week in the best of ways and can now hopefully recuperate some strikers like Recoba and Martins while at the same time plan for two huge matches against Valencia in the Champions league on Wednesday and of course the DERBY against Milan on Sunday!

Eddy Lio

Lineup

Subs:

Scorers: Adriano 8', 12', Mauri 52', Vieri 57'