Inter’s streak in the Champions League continues to border on perfection. The Milanese, with some suffering, defeated Arsenal 1-0 and have 10 points in four games, with six goals for and none against. Arteta’s men, on the contrary, confirmed their difficult moment at San Siro: of the last four games, they only won one.
Simone Inzaghi confirmed the rumors of the day before, making rotations with a view to the fundamental match with Naples on Sunday and leaving out starters such as Bastoni, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco, Barella and Thuram.
It was a very brave decision, but it didn’t take long for the Nerazzurri to prove that their coach was right. Dumfries, in the second minute, hit the crossbar with a whip from the front and thus opened a first half whose hallmark was great intensity, with very tough duels, although with few emotions in the area.
The Milanese were playing better, but they needed the help of Merino to open the scoring: after a foul by Calhanoglu and a touch by Taremi, the ball ended up on the Spaniard’s arm. It was a clear penalty that Calhanoglu took and it was confirmed infallible: he materialized all the 19 maximum penalties that he has taken charge of since he wore the Interista shirt.
Arteta, with an offensive change (Gabriel Jesus entered instead of Merino) wanted to change the face of his team from minute 1 of the restart, and he achieved it. Arsenal dominated the second half (almost 70% possession), came close to tying with a left-footed shot by Havertz that Sommer removed from the top corner and creating danger several times from set pieces. Inzaghi had no choice but to take his heavyweights off the bench (Thuram, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco and Barella came in), but, also with them, in the final stretch the plan was to defend themselves with a backline of five and call time. It turned out well.
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Changes
Gabriel Jesus (45′, Mikel Merino), Marcus Thuram (61′, Lautaro Martínez), Nicolò Barella (61′, Davide Frattesi), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (61′, Piotr Zielinski), Kristjan Asllani (70′, Hakan Çalhanoglu), Federico Dimarco (78′, Mehdi Taremi), Oleksandr Zinchenko (81′, Timber Jury), Ethan Nwaneri (81′, Leandro Trossard), Martin Ødegaard (92′, Kai Havertz)
Goals
1-0, 47′: Calhanoglu
Cards
Referee: István Kovács
VAR referee: Christian Dingert, Catalin Popa
Lautaro Martínez (14′, Yellow), Gabriel (14′, Yellow), Stretcher (67′, Yellow), Gabriel Jesus (67′, Yellow)
