First Points Dropped For Inter

 The last time Inter lost in Serie A before they secured their 19th Scudetto was against Sampdoria at the Luigi Ferraris. It was a highly frustrating match as Inter missed several chances including a penalty and conceded twice on the counter-attack. Inter made a return there in the early game on Sunday.

Dimarco Smashes One In The Top Corner

It wasn’t the perfect performance as Sampdoria hounded our midfielders which resulted in erratic and erroneous passing.  We were fortunate to take the lead as we were awarded a soft free-kick. Federico Dimarco didn’t turn down the gift and thundered in a superb free-kick. Before that goal and after it, we carried little threat going forward. Lautaro Martinez had a decent chance that was saved by Emil Audero after Inter had scored.



Fortune Favours Sampdoria

Sampdoria got a fortunate equaliser too although you can argue that we should have done better in dealing with the corner that led to Maya Yoshida’s goal. The fortune part was that his shot deflected off Edin Dzeko before trickling into the bottom corner of the goal. We couldn’t begrudge Sampdoria’s goal as they were the better team and carried a stronger threat but from Inter’s point of view, we should have defended better.

Great Goal A Piece

In periods of the match, we held on to possession quite well without threatening too much. Milan Skriniar had a great chance from a corner that he put over before Nicolo Barella went on a great run and delivered a fitting assist for Lautaro Martinez to finish with aplomb. It came just a minute before half-time and I was hoping we would push on in the second half by scoring more and playing better. The opposite happened as we conceded a goal two minutes after half-time. A cross to the back post was met by a superb volley from Tommaso Augello.

Wasted Chances & Miraculous Save

After getting pegged back to 2-2, Inter had three glorious chances to make it 3-2 but spurned it all. Ivan Perisic couldn’t make his mind up on whether to cross or shoot, it looked like the ball was nicked from Lautaro Martinez but a goal kick was awarded to suggest that he got the last touch and Hakan Calhanoglu shot wide from a good position. We had one other chance when substitute Denzel Dumfries turned on the afterburners and created a chance for Joaquin Correa who turned and put his shot over. That was to be the last of chances. Inter played the last quarter of an hour with 10 men when Stefano Sensi got injured and we had used all our substitutions.

Not A Bad Point To Gain

While the missed chances and losing the lead twice feels like an opportunity lost to win the match, Danilo D’Ambrosio’s miraculous goal-line clearance was a relief as we nearly ended the match with zero points. Overall, I felt like I did after the match against Hellas Verona, the team is still gelling. It would be interesting to see how the team would play with Dumfries as the right wing-back and Correa as a striker from the start. 

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