THE VITALS:

Team: Internazionale

Brand: Nike

Era: 2012-13 (Used for the 2012-13 Serie A season)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

In spite of the few bobbles and wear to the threading; this shirt remains in very good condition, with the Nike swoosh, club crest and Pirelli sponsor standing in great shape.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Small

Pit to Pit Measurement: 18.5 inches

Shirt Length: 27.25 inches 

Made by Nike in their ‘Dri-Fit’ template which they introduced in 2012; this shirt provides the dimensions for a very good size small fitting shirt.

DESCRIPTION:

Nike continued their trend of producing a truly unique and never before seen Internazionale home shirt for a third straight season with their 2012-13 season offering! While the 2011-12 home shirt employed the use of very thin stripes and a small button up collar; this effort was the polar opposite with the main body featuring three thick blue stripes and two thick black stripes, while a black hoop collar was implemented, meanwhile the sleeves were also all-black; making this one of the most black-heavy Internazionale shirts of all time! On the pitch, there may have only been few and far between to shout about, however, this was the shirt worn as Inter inflicted Juventus’ first ever defeat at the Juventus Stadium on 03/11/2012; a victory which ended Juve’s 49 match unbeaten record in Serie A! This would also be the last Inter home shirt to be worn by both – Wesley Sneijder and Philippe Coutinho as they departed for Galatasaray and Liverpool respectively in January 2013 as well as it being the only Inter home shirt to be worn by Antonio Cassano!

THE SEASON:

Inter’s 2011-12 season was proof that a lot can change in the space of 12 months. After a 2nd place finish and Coppa Italia win in 2010-11; Inter would eventually finish 6th in 2011-12; their worst league finish since finishing 8th in the 1998-99 season in what was a season that featured three different managers!

The final of those three managers – Andrea Stramaccioni would take the hot-seat in March 2012, and in his 9 games he oversaw, he guided Internazionale to 5 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats; and when it was said and done, his Inter side were only 4 points shy of the top 4. The summer of 2012 would see a series of the club’s veterans leave the club as – Ivan Cordoba, Lucio, Diego Forlan, Maicon and Julio Cesar all moved on, as did – Giampaolo Pazzini, Goran Pandev and Sulley Muntari.

The new signings who would be pulling on the famous black and blue stripes in the 2012-13 season would be – Alvaro Pereira, Walter Gargano, Matias Silvestre, Samir Handanovic, Rodrigo Palacio and Antonio Cassano while Fredy Guarin’s loan move was made permanent and Philippe Coutinho returned from his loan spell with Espanyol!

The ‘Nerazzurri’ were sensational in their opening 11 games; winning 9 and losing just twice; in fact, between 26/09/12 and 04/11/12; Inter would win 7 straight games in a row – a first time accomplishment since the 2008-09 season, and amongst those wins would be a 1-0 win in the Milan Derby versus AC Milan on 07/10/12 and famously, against the champions – Juventus on 04/11/12! The win over Juve would end their unbeaten streak in the league at 49 games, and would also be the first time Juventus had ever lost in the Juventus Stadium, bringing the team into 2nd place and within a point of 1st place Juventus!

Unfortunately, that would be as good as it would get for Inter that season as the team struggled for any consistency for the rest of the season. In fact, Inter would win just 7 more league games all season, with just 5 of them coming in the 2013 portion of the season. Fortunately, their early start would supply enough points to still finish in 9th place; however, that wouldn’t be enough to spare Stramaccioni his job as he was replaced by Napoli’s Walter Mazzarri ahead of the 2013-14 season.

Inter’s quest to regain the Coppa Italia would bring them to semi-final stage in what was one of the few high points of the season. They would ultimately be beaten by Roma in a thrilling semi-final that ended in a 5-3 defeat over 2 Legs!

Inter would feature in the rebranded Europa League for the first time, as their last appearance was in 2004 when the competition was known as the UEFA Cup. Beginning from the 3rd Qualifying Round in early August; Inter would reach the Group Stage with relative ease, where they would eventually finish in 2nd place in a group that also featured – Partizan, Neftchi Baku and group winners – Rubin Kazan. Inter would ease past CFR Cluj in the Round of 32 before being drawn against Tottenham Hotspur in the Round of 16. After losing 3-0 in the 1st Leg in London on 07/03/13; Inter would win 3-0 at San Siro to set up extra time, however, a Spurs away goal would be enough to eliminate Inter on 4-4 away goals as the game ended 4-1 to Internazionale!

The notable players that season were:

Rodrigo Palacio, Antonio Cassano, Diego Milito, Wesley Sneijder, Phillipe Coutinho, Ricky Alvarez, Mateo Kovacic, Fredy Guarin, Esteban Cambiasso, Dejan Stankovic, Walter Gargano, Javier Zanetti, Christian Chivu, Juan Jesus, Walter Samuel, Andrea Ranocchia, Yuto Nagatomo, Alvaro Pereira, Samir Handanovic