The gap that Yann Sommer is supposed to fill at Inter Milan is not exactly small: André Onana was one of the key players in the Champions League finalists and it was not for nothing that Manchester United was worth over 50 million euros this summer. In making his Inter debut, Sommer may have raised doubts among some fans as to whether he is the right Onana successor.
In any case, the first few minutes could hardly have gone worse for the 34-year-old Swiss when the Nerazzurri played a friendly at RB Salzburg in pouring rain on Wednesday evening. In the fifth minute he brought RB attacker Karim Konaté down in the penalty area and was lucky that the 19-year-old put the penalty over the box.
Two goofs after six minutes
Just a minute later, Sommer didn’t get out of his goal with enough determination from a through pass, so he didn’t clear the ball sufficiently on the edge of the penalty area, allowing Konaté to shoot into the empty box from the left. Later, the newcomer with the shirt number one, who had been signed by FC Bayern for six million euros, was a bit more stable and was powerless when he conceded the second and third goals – each after a standard situation. Nevertheless, in the end he was one of the weakest guest actors.
“Basically, he didn’t have the security that you would expect from someone who the management had been chasing after for a long time,” commented the “Gazzetta dello Sport”. The good news is that you can best afford such games in the pre-season.
After all: Sommer played through just two days after his commitment, celebrated a 4-3 win and was still unscathed from a second penalty. 19-year-old Croatian Roko Simic, who was fouled like Konaté in the early stages, shot wide in the 69th minute, Sommer would have been in the right corner.
“Happy about my debut with Inter,” wrote the ex-Munich native on Instagram afterwards. “There’s more to come!” He will certainly have meant missions, not unfortunate performances like in Salzburg.
