The Nerazzurri’s abysmal form continued in Florence on Saturday as they squandered a half time lead to eventually go down 5-4 in what could possibly be the final nail in the coffin for Stefano Pioli’s future.  

 

Despite a season full of ups and downs, nobody would have foreseen Inter's current dismal run following win after win culminating in back to back demolitions of Cagliari and high flying Atalanta. The Nerazzurri netted twelve goals in those two games, conceding just two leading many to believe that they were ready to make a firm challenge at Champions League football. Since then they have achieved just two points from five games including a humiliating defeat to Serie B bound Crotone. 

 

Everyone at the club must be feeling the pain from coming down with such a thud that they now look more and more likely to miss out on Europe all together causing yet another major setback for the once great club.
 

The trip to Florence perfectly summed up Inter's campaign; it had ups and downs but ultimately resulted in defeat. The 5-4 result, although great for Fiorentina and the neutral, will be extremely frustrating for Pioli after seeing his side play some solid stuff during the first half and take a promising lead into the break. The team did well to respond to Vecino’s opener as the forwards showed off some impressive stuff with Perisic and Candreva combining expertly to equalize. Then after some nice interplay from Joao Mario and Gagliardini, captain Icardi showed some superb strength to hold off Fiorentina’s defenders and slot home. 

Things were looking good. Even after giving away a penalty following a horrendous clearance from Nagatomo, they were still leading following Bernardeschi’s equally shocking penalty miss, but as ever they couldn’t close out the game. 
 

Josip Ilicic was brought on for the hosts in what proved to be a crucial move, as soon after he dribbled his way through Inter's insipid defence to force the corner kick which was duly capitalized on by Davide Astori to give Fiorentina their equalizer. And before Inter even knew what had hit them, they were picking out the ball from the net yet again. Matias Vecino gave a give and go with Valero and was allowed to dribble from the centre of the park and unleash a strike outside the box into goal despite being surrounded by five Inter players.



Completely deflated, Inter were in shambles and Fiorentina began to take charge, Babacar went on to make it 4-2 following some more embarrassing defending from Gary Medel and not long after the Senegalese international  made it five. The game was over but for some reason Inter decided it was time to start playing again and Mauro Icardi led by example netting twice in the final minutes to give the Argentine a hat trick on the day.
 

The final minutes were tense as a long range Brozovic strike was cleared of the line but it was all too little too late and now Inter are facing another season watching European football from the sidelines. 
 

Patience looks set to be finally running out with the owners and fans, so something's got to give in these final games or else we are looking at yet another catastrophic summer for the Nerazzurri.  
 


Ciro Di Baselli