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Robin van Persie has helped Feyenoord stun Inter before but it will take an almighty turnaround to earn their first European Cup quarter-final since 1972. This was a harsh introduction to the sharp end of management for a local hero whose below-strength side sparkled briefly before their visitors’ knowhow comfortably won out.
A goal in each half from Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martínez meant Inter have a foot in the last eight and, positioned in the softer half of the draw, cannot be discounted from going the distance. It will take time for Van Persie, appointed 10 days ago to harness the legacy bequeathed by Arne Slot, to stamp his identity here; a seasoned Inter, ultimately assured and lethal, look quietly confident in their own skin.
There had been an epic quality to the buildup. The sun shimmered over this city’s snaking waterways while vessels hauled their freight this way and that along the arteries that keep a continent in motion. As the light receded, focus was concentrated on the curves of a venue with no equivalent in Europe. Sound courses around this uncompromising, sweeping yet intimate, cauldron with the ferocity of cyclists hurtling round the bends in a velodrome. It reached guttural, feverish levels as Van Persie and his players emerged. This could be Rotterdam and nowhere else.
The choirs had converged here in search of history, or perhaps just a repeat of it. Van Persie knows better than most what happened in April 2002, when Feyenoord’s home staged one of its most famous nights. Inter were overcome in a Uefa Cup semi-final, an 18-year-old forward setting up the first goal for Pierre van Hooijdonk, and Feyenoord proceeded to win the trophy. The rangy left winger who started that game could barely have countenanced overseeing the chance to do it all again.
The hair is greyer these days and Van Persie, inheriting a fearful injury crisis along with his dream job, would need that atmosphere to help ease his problems. Feyenoord were missing 16 players through injury, suspension or ineligibility; they had come through thrillingly to beat Milan in the playoffs but toppling Inter, the Serie A leaders, over two legs would require heroics comparable with those of two decades past.
Van Persie had detected a sharpness in the depleted hosts even though they drew with NEC in his first game. They began at speed, the left winger Ibrahim Osman forcing Josep Martínez to parry wide. Osman, on loan from Brighton, was a menace and escaped again in the 11th minute. This time the angle was tighter and the keeper emerged swiftly to block. Feyenoord won five corners in the opening 20 minutes, their energy bringing territory if not clear chances.
In such cases there is always the sense Italian poise and wisdom will ease through. The Inter right wing-back Denzel Dumfries, a graduate of Sparta Rotterdam, had squandered a promising position in a portent of future success down that flank. Lautaro Martínez would see a shot charged down during respite from Feyenoord’s squall and, from a Thuram-led break before the half-hour, Hugo Bueno made a crucial intervention. Then Timon Wellenreuther held a bouncing attempt from Alessandro Bastoni but the opener had hardly been advertised in neon.
It came when Dumfries, near the byline, teed up Nicolò Barella for a cross that dipped towards the six-yard box. Thuram, contorting in mid-air, had escaped the defence’s clutches and could divert a difficult right-footed volley high into the net. Now Inter could exert some authority: Wellenreuther was worked by Martínez and, from a free-kick, Kristjan Asllani at the end of a half that had turned their way.
Could Van Persie’s bold, raw collage of available players swing things back after the interval? The answer came quickly and, for Feyenoord, dispiritingly. Bastoni, enjoying himself in a left-sided role demanded by Inter’s own injury woes, made light of his 6ft 3in frame by manoeuvring around the novice right-back Jeyland Mitchell and laid on a chance for Piotr Zielinski. The effort was blocked but pinged back to Zielinski, who this time worked the ball forwards to Martínez. An immaculate first touch preceded an emphatic finish and Inter looked unassailable.
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“I get knocked down, but I get up again,” a pre-match display by Feyenoord’s fans had read and, channelling the Chumbawamba hit, their team did exactly that. The livewire Osman rolled his man and centred for Jakub Moder, gloriously placed, to sidefoot high.
That miss looked more severe when, after an extensive VAR check, the struggling Mitchell was penalised for clipping Thuram’s ankle in the box. Zielinski was given a chance to put the tie beyond doubt but his low, ill-directed penalty was repelled by Wellenreuther and a previously becalmed crowd discovered a second wind.
They howled when Ayase Ueda, tasked with rounding the ex-Feyenoord defender Stefan De Vrij, fell before he could go for goal. There was no case for a spot kick and inspiration would be required from elsewhere. The home pressure dialled back up but Inter have seen this movie before. They eased home and, in truth, had bent the script to their will for much of the night.
