The Champions League game between Inter Milan and Rubin Kazan at the San Siro Stadium on Wednesday Dec 9 2009.
Rare are the matches when supporters find it necessary to pray, but this is what the Inter Tifosi found themselves doing last night to avert a chastening early bow from the European stage.
They implored that their club be redeemed by Saint Syrus of Pavia, known colloquially as San Siro and the figure who gave his name to the district encircling this stadium. They asked that he would preserve one of their few consistent records, in never having lost a match at home on Dec 9. And so he did.
It was a desperate search for solace, perhaps, but they could not have reckoned on an intervention as divine as the one fashioned by Mario Balotelli.
A divisive figure at Inter through his histrionics and perceived selfishness, Balotelli was only ‘Super Mario’ here as he uncoiled himself into a 40-yard free-kick for one of the best set-piece goals you are ever likely to see – and propelled Jose Mourinho, his restless manager, into the knockout phase of a competition by which the Nerazzurri’s season will be judged.
You would not quite call it a stay of execution for Mourinho, but this was assuredly a reprieve. The Portuguese has alienated many commentators in Italy by his posturing put-downs, and has lost his ‘Special One’ tag.
In this country they know him only as ‘Mou’, which in any language does not sound wholly complimentary.
Inter found it difficult to shake the image of a side who had not savoured a Champions League victory at home for 14 months. The last, a nervy 2-1 win over Anorthosis Famagusta in October 2008, had been much the same proposition as the test posed by Rubin: a frustrating encounter with opponents fresh and fearless at this level.
For half an hour Inter’s passing was disjointed, their attacks without conviction. Their fans did not know if they should avert their eyes from a maddening spectacle or attune to events at the Nou Camp, where Dynamo Kiev had gone ahead against Barcelona with a shock eighth-minute goal.
During a brief, torrid spell every Inter mistake acquired added horror, whether it was the exit of centre-back Walter Samuel with a suspected hamstring injury or the threat from Alejandro Dominguez, Rubin’s dynamic Argentine striker.
There needed to be confirmation that Samuel Eto’o was even playing, so anonymous had the Cameroon forward become.
But it is the common trait of goal-poachers that they can do nothing for long periods before cropping up in the six-yard box with extra emphasis, and so it proved with Eto’o: a few skips on the left by Javier Zanetti, a pull-back from Balotelli, and the centre-forward swept the ball home.
As mayhem engulfed the Inter technical area, Mourinho permitted himself a slight shuffle, nothing more.
This was about the most energy Inter could muster. Why, Ivan Cordoba, the substitute who replaced Samuel, did not even bother taking his scarf off.
Despite the presence of Rubin this was a mild Milan evening, not a sub-zero ordeal in Kazan, deepest Tartastan, and yet Inter’s play scarcely warmed up at all save for the moment when Maicon’s lethal drive drew a fine one-handed save from Sergei Ryzhikov.
Rubin ratcheted up the second-half pressure, with Christian Noboa left unmarked at the far post for an easy chance, but Balotelli erased any vestiges of doubt with the sheer power of Inter’s second goal.
The trajectory of his free-kick started dead straight before swerving far too late for Ryzhikov to block. Mourinho’s message for the night: solo vincere (only win) had been clinically fulfilled.
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