Inter walked off the San Siro on Tuesday night with a problem that stretches far past the pitch. The 3-4 defeat to Club Brugge was the Nerazzurri’s fourth straight European defeat, a losing run with no precedent in their Champions League history, and it leaves them 28th of 36 teams in the league phase.
The pattern is the real alarm. Inter opened the campaign with a 2-1 loss to Real Madrid at the Bernabéu on 8 September, and have now followed it with a home collapse against Belgian opposition. Nicolo Tresoldi’s hat-trick, including a 30th-minute penalty, undid a Lautaro Martínez brace and a stoppage-time Ange-Yoan Bonny strike.
Cristian Chivu did not hide behind the chances created.
“I can’t say it’s not worrying; obviously, we have things we need to re-evaluate,” he told reporters after the match.
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“I must be the first to take responsibility, because perhaps I cannot find the right balance going into certain types of games.”
€66m already off the books
The sporting failure maps straight onto the balance sheet. Inter earned around €71 million in UEFA prize money last season after their playoff elimination to Bodø/Glimt, according to Calcio e Finanza figures reported by FCInterNews. The campaign before, when they reached the Champions League final under Simone Inzaghi, delivered close to €137 million, a drop of roughly €66 million in a single year.
That is before the current slide. Each defeat in the league phase strips win bonuses off the final total, and dropping into another playoff round, or missing the knockouts altogether, would compound the loss. Reaching the Round of 16 even via the playoff is estimated to be worth €18-20 million in prize money alone, before the matchday revenue two extra home nights would bring.
Oaktree want the last 16 as the floor
Owners Oaktree, the US investment firm that took control of Inter from Suning in May 2024, treat reaching the Round of 16 as the minimum acceptable European outcome. The club’s most recently approved accounts posted a second consecutive profit, a position Oaktree built in part on the €137 million Champions League haul from the run to the final, and losing that revenue line for a second year running would narrow the room they have to protect the squad through January.
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Inter still have six league phase matches to play, against Shakhtar Donetsk, Feyenoord, Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool and Slovan Bratislava. Sixteen points has historically been enough to secure a top-eight finish and automatic qualification for the Round of 16; the playoff cut-off sits lower, but every point missed now narrows the margin.
“We must also keep the faith, because there are another six to go,” Chivu said. “It’s true these two defeats hurt our Champions League expectations, especially with the way we ended last season in this competition.”
The recovery starts at San Siro on Wednesday 21 October, when Inter host Shakhtar Donetsk at 9pm local time.
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