Inter Milan has pushed further their Serie A title contention with a 2-1 win over Sampdoria at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on Sunday.
Football action returned in the league after over three months of coronavirus hiatus.
Inter were dominant in the first half when they score the two goals but couldn’t keep up the tempo in the second interval as Antonio Conte’s men became rather deflated, giving the visitors the chance to come back into the game. Inter has now reduced the gap between them and the leaders Juventus to six points.
Roberto Gagliardini started in the middle of the park for Inter after Marcelo Brozovic, Stefano Sensi, and Matias Vecino were all out injured. Christian Eriksen settled into the trequartista role.
Sampdoria, on the other hand, missed their striker, Fabio Quagliarella and Alex Ferrari. To counter Inter’s attack, Claudio Ranieri congested his midfield with five men and moved to three at the back, mirroring Antonio Conte’s system.
Inter started on a bright note with Eriksen scoring within the first 90 seconds, but the goal was canceled because Antonio Candreva, who rolled the ball across to the Danish playmaker, was offside when getting down the right.
Inter later took the lead in the 10th minute through a great team goal. Lautaro Martinez, who is linked to Barcelona, released a back-heel flick, which found Romelu Lukaku in the center, and the Belgian combined with Eriksen’s no-look one-touch pass inside the penalty area to sweep home from eight yards. In respect to the Blck Lives Matter protest, he celebrated the goal by taking the knee.
Inter doubled their lead through Martinez. Lukaku’s pullback to Candreva was clean enough for the Italian winger to roll it across for Martinez to finish it off from nine yards. This ended the six games drought of the Argentine.
Inter Milan deflated in the second half
In the second half, Inter looked deflated, and Sampdoria began to see opportunities, especially through dead balls situations. Lukaku failed to double his tally in the match after Eriksen pulled back a pass from the by-line to him, only to fire wide of an empty net.
After Colley’s header failed to hit the target from a free-kick, they eventually reduced the deficit through the effort of the same player. He was left unmarked from a corner, this time around as his header cannoned off the crossbar, and Morten Thorsby quickly reacted on the rebound to surprise Samir Handanovic.
Eriksen later tested Audero, with his curler almost wrong-footing the goalkeeper at the near post.
Sampdoria also threatened to see if they could get something out of the blues as Nicola Murru scorcher went wide and Handanovic beating away the Mehdi Leris free-kick.
Watch the highlight of the action below.
