Empoli beat Inter 1-0 in the Monday postponement of the 19th day of Serie A, played at the ‘Meazza’ stadium in Milan. Baldanzi’s goal in the 66th minute decided the match. The Nerazzurri paid for Skriniar to be sent off in the 40th minute for a second yellow card. In the standings, Inter remains firm at 37 in third position together with Roma, -13 behind leaders Napoli, while Empoli rises to 9th place with 25 points.
THE MATCH – Empoli had the first chance of the match: Cambiaghi escaped Bastoni and looked for the goal to cross, Onana put in for a corner. On the developments of the corner, Calhanoglu-Caputo contact: high leg of the first and low head of the second, protests from both sides but for Rapuano there is nothing. However, it is always the guests who become dangerous: in the 17th minute Bandinelli cues Caputo – with an evident bandage on his head – between Skriniar and De Vrij, the thrust of the Apulian is deflected in a corner by the Dutchman.
Inter reaction: hail from Calhanoglu for Dimarco, who calls the Vicario from a complicated position in the first intervention of the match. After half an hour, another opportunity for the hosts: Dimarco somehow keeps a very long ball from Barella on the pitch, Lautaro’s aerial shot from two steps is just a little too high. The turning point in the game came in the fortieth minute: while his agent announced his farewell to Inter, Skriniar, already booked, was sent off for a naive foul on Caputo and the Nerazzurri remained in ten.
Two substitutions, one on each side, when the game resumed: Inzaghi replaced the evanescent Correa with Bellanova to lower Darmian in defence, Zanetti sent Akpa-Akpro out of the field, booked, to make room for Haas. Thanks to the numerical inferiority, Inter crushed in defense and at the same time unable to find offensive spaces: the guests were better off, dangerous with a nice cross from Cambiaghi intercepted by Darmian and then again with Bajrami, whose shot was controlled land nimbly from Onana. It is the appetizer of the goal: Baldanzi opens and closes a very rapid counterattack, Bajrami returns the ball that the Empoli number 35 sends into the net behind Onana.
Inzaghi puts Dzeko in first and then Lukaku. The Bosnian almost scored immediately, the second struggled while De Vrij almost equalized but the crossbar denied him. It is, in fact, the only true acute of the Nerazzurri’s final forcing.
