Inter have come back from 1-0 at the break, to demolish Fiorentina in the second half with a 3-1 win away from home.
The Nerazzurri came out of the blocks slowly and were really sloppy in the first half. No serious chances were created, and Fiorentina had all the running.
In the second half, Inter would come out from the sheds with everything to prove. Within 10 minutes, Inter were ahead 2-1 with two splendid goals from Darmian and Dzeko. The cherry on the cake came through Perisic as he made the score 3-1 with a simple tap in.
Let’s look into some key points from the match –
Man of the match –
There were some great performances in the team today, but there was only one player who played both halves incredibly well.
For me, Samir Handanovic was the best player on the field hands down. Especially in that first half when Fiorentina had so many chances to extend the lead. We saw a brilliant Handanovic today and he really showed his best goalkeeping qualities.
In the goal Inter conceded, there was nothing he could do as the ball was perfectly slid across goal and then was placed into the top of the goal netting. Handanovic was able to stop all the other shots on target which ensured Inter to get the result.
We’ve seen over the past few weeks, where minimum shots were rewarded with goals for opposing teams. However, that was not the case today as Handanovic finally looked like his former self from years past.
Special mention –
Milan Skriniar was great in defence today. Going head to head with an opponent in Gonzalez I’m sure wouldn’t have been easy, but Skriniar kept his head up all match.
Early on he received a yellow card which I thought was a little unfair. A challenge where Skriniar came in from the side and collected ball first. The referee took a different view on the challenge.
I thought Skriniar was also unlucky minutes later not to get a foul in what eventuated being Fiorentina’s goal. It definitely looked like Gonzalez pushed Skriniar in the air, but VAR didn’t see it that way.
For many players, they would’ve let that affect them but not Skriniar. For the rest of the game he didn’t take a step backwards. On multiple occasions with Biraghi running at him, he stole the ball one on one and then distributed the ball forward for an Inter counter attack.
This man is something special and can’t wait to see how he plays moving forward.
Perfect timing –
Just before Inter’s first goal, Inzaghi was ready to make two subs. Both Dumfries and Sanchez were standing at the half way line waiting to come on the pitch. Luckily the ball had not gone out, otherwise we would’ve seen Darmian taken off for Dumfries and Dzeko off for Sanchez.
As we know, Darmian scored the equalizing goal for Inter and that really changed the momentum of the game. Within 3 minutes, Dzeko scored a fantastic header from a perfectly placed Hakan corner.
It was the strangest of things considering the two players Inzaghi wanted to take off were the two goal scorers. It makes you wonder what would’ve happened if the ball had gone out, and Inter were able to make the substitutions.
Where to next?
A tough home fixture awaits Inter after another short turnaround. The next opponent will be the best attacking team from last season, Atalanta. It’s been hard to read Atalanta as they have been a bit inconsistent so far.
This will definitely be the toughest match of the season so far.
Prediction: Inter 2-1
As always, Forza Inter!
