Four goals conceded and a goalkeeper sent off all in the first 14 minutes, followed by a second half hat-trick for Gareth Bale. It’s fair to say it was another wild adventure for the Champions League new boys.
GEAR:Champions League shirts here. Free worldwide delivery on orders over £40
There was barely a minute on the clock when it all began. After a passing move the Brazilians would have been proud of, Samuel Eto’o fed the ball through to skipper Javier Zanetti on the left, who calmly slotted the ball past Heurelho Gomes from 10 yards.
Referee Damir Skomina showed Gomes the red card, but so much was the goalkeeper’s bemusement at what was happening, he took an age to leave the pitch and was shown the card a second time.
Luka Modric had to part way for Carlo Cudicini, whose first piece of action was to pick the ball out of his net after Eto’o smashed the penalty home.
After stringing together 35 passes – none of them remotely challenged by a dumbfounded Tottenham defence, Phillipe Coutinho laid the ball off to Dejan Stankovic, who found Eto’o, who flicked it back to Stankovic, who took a touch and finished past Cudicini into the bottom corner. Game over, surely.
Inter continued to dominate the first half. The fourth came after 34 minutes. Coutinho threaded the ball through to Eto’o who jinked the ball past Cudicini.
It was the Cameroon international’s second on the night and his 14th in just 12 games.
Perhaps things may have been different if Spurs’ man of the moment Rafael van der Vaart had been available – the Dutchman served a one-match ban following his sending of against FC Twente.
And maybe if key defender Ledley King or front-man Jermain Defoe weren’t both sidelined with injuries, Spurs may have put up more of a fight.
They were on the ropes from the offset, and Inter never looked liked stopping. Their fluidity and ability to keep possession in Tottenham’s half was mesmerising at times.
Inter Milan (4-4-2): Cesar; Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Chivu (Pandev, 60); Zanetti, Stankovic (Santon, 50), Biabiany (Codoba,75), Sneijder; Coutinho, Eto’o.
