Inter are out of the FIFA Club World Cup: Why losing to Fluminense is the best thing for Cristian Chivu’s team
Inter are out of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. Despite the disappointment of the elimination after losing 2-0 to Fluminense in the round of 16 of the summer tournament, the Italian giants can finally take a break after their exceedingly long 2024-25 season. Many things happened over the last weeks of this disappointing season. It seems ages ago when Inter won an incredible 4-3 match in the second leg of the Champions League semifinal against Barcelona. Since then, and despite the excitement, the Nerazzurri lost the 2024-25 Serie A title as Napoli managed to win their 4th Scudetto, lost the UEFA Champions League final in a dramatic 5-0 defeat against PSG, and faced a managerial change. Former Inter coach Simone Inzaghi and the club decided to part ways after four years in charge and the Italian team decided to appoint former 2010 Champions League winner and club legend Cristian Chivu.
It was a surprising decision, and one that left many doubtful, but Inter wanted a young coach who could improve their young talents, and already worked in the youth sector of the club, as Chivu coached the youth teams from 2018 to 2024. The Romanian manager only coached 13 Serie A matches at Parma before being appointed by his former club, with three wins, seven draws and three defeats. It’s clear that the Nerazzurri took a risk with Chivu, but wanted a manager who could improve young players, as they have already signed some new players, such as Croatian midfielder Petar Sucic, Brazilian winger Luis Henrique and French striker Ange-Yoan Bonny from Parma. On top of these signings, the Nerazzurri brought back some loans, including Italian wonderkid Francesco Pio Esposito, who showed his skills already in the World Cup and scored the deciding goal against River Plate in the last match of the group stage.
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Francesco Porzio
Some players will definitely leave Inter as well, and rumours about a potential departure of midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu to Galatasaray are growing day after day, at the same time the Italian side are starting a new chapter with a new manager, but they need a break now. Before starting the preseason and training in the second part of July, the four matches played in the Club World Cup showed that this team is mentally exhausted. The Champions League disappointment and the Serie A failure were a big setback for this team, and the Club World Cup showed this roster need some time off to reset and start off with some new ideas, players and tactical approach with the new manager.
While the World Cup helped the team to start working with the new coaching staff, the words of the Inter captain Lautaro Martinez to DAZN after the Fluminense defeat are showing something will have to change this summer: “The message must be clear, those who want to stay should stay, those who don’t want to stay should leave. I want to fight for important goals. This is an important jersey, and that must be the message.” Words that sound like a message not only to the outside, but also to the dressing room.
It was a difficult end of the season for both the team and the fans but today it’s difficult to understand if the end of the 2024-25 season will also have some consequences to the upcoming 2025-26 season. The players need to rest and take some time off now, but the words of Lautaro sound like a clear statement to some teammates that might look for a change this summer after years at the club. Whoever is coming back after the break, have to work even harder to transform a disappointing season into a new successful era for the club because what happened over the last weeks will be difficult to digest for the whole club’s environment.
