Club World Cup, Chivu: "The boys played a serious match. Happy for Carboni"

Seattle (USA), June 21, 2025 – The Cristian Chivu's first win on the Inter bench: after the 1-1 draw against Monterrey in the debut of the FIFA Club World Cup, the Nerazzurri they in fact defeated the Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds 2-1. A comeback success, all in Argentine style, for the Nerazzurri, who started with a new formation with a three-man defence and hit coldly – ​​despite the proactive start – by Watanabe's goal, well assisted in the 11th minute by Sakuro who was good at creating the assist for his teammate at the end of a nice run on the right. The Nerazzurri responded immediately and came within a whisker of equalising with Lautaro Martinez in the 19th minute., who hit the crossbar with his header. Inter then continued to attack in search of an equaliser for the rest of the first half, but were unable to create any further chances against a decidedly defensive Urawa. In the second half, however, the music changed and the Nerazzurri raised their centre of gravity and engine revs even further and, after having done a dress rehearsal with at least three or four goal-scoring opportunities created, They caught up with their opponents with a beautiful shot in the area by Lautaro Martinez, in the 78th minuteThe goal gave further confidence and energy to the Nerazzurri who, in full recovery, put the icing on the cake with the goal of the overtaking with Valentin Carboni, who put the ball into the corner after it had been blocked by the defence. A success that has given new impetus to the Nerazzurri's ambitions in the competition and that leaves Mister Chivu satisfied: “The boys played a good game,” he explained to DAZN microphones, “a serious match. We tried in every way to create a bit of confusion and score goals against a team that defended very low. In the second half, with the entry of Pio Esposito, we tried to make the most of the crosses that came from the wings. We believed in it until the end and we did it. The boys made me proud, because it wasn't easy to play against such an organised opponent, but they gave everything they had and we brought it home.” On individuals: “I could say a lot about Valentin Carboni, but I could do the same about Pio Esposito, Luis Enrique and Sucic who gave his all in the final minutes. Going back to Valentin, I'm happy for him because it was his first game after his cruciate ligament injury. Speaking to him, he told me that it had been eight months since he got hurt and I'm happy for him because he worked hard to recover from this terrible problem. Seeing him like this makes me happy”. The conclusion: “It's difficult to talk about modules or game systems after a match against a team that defended like this on the edge of the penalty area. I liked the search for width and the short attack of depth in the first half when there were two players under the striker. I would have left them in the second half if we had been 0-0, but since we ended up behind we put Pio Esposito and the second striker forward to fill the area and exploit the crosses”.