Inter move to second with comfortable win over Lecce
After a surprise 1-0 defeat at Bologna last time out, the Nerazzurri will have been looking for a fast start to avenge that loss, and in the opening three minutes, Hakan Çalhanoğlu stung the palms of Wladimiro Falcone from 25 yards. The visitors remained resolute in the opening exchanges though, with Assan Ceesay having a sight at goal himself, only for his shot to be comfortably held by André Onana. Despite Edin Ďzeko’s eight-game goal drought coming into this contest, the Bosnian was trusted to lead the line for Inter ahead of Romelu Lukaku, but he was unable to end that lean spell in the opening period, nodding a back-post delivery from Çalhanoğlu wide of the target.
However, the hosts did open the scoring on 29 minutes. After Alessandro Tuia’s pass was intercepted by Robin Gosens, the German surged down the left and cut the ball back for Nicolò Barella, who displayed great poise to keep hold of possession before laying off for Mkhitaryan to curl gloriously into Falcone’s top left-hand corner from just inside the box. The lead could have been doubled when Ďzeko squared for Denzel Dumfries to sprint through on goal, but Valentin Gendrey produced a last-ditch challenge on the Dutchman as he prepared to pull the trigger, with VAR reviewing the incident for a possible penalty before allowing play to continue.
However, Dumfries - making his 350th career appearance - did play his part in making it 2-0 on 53 minutes, finding Martínez on the edge of the area for the captain to sidefoot past Falcone for his 14th league goal of the campaign. Marco Baroni threw on Rémi Oudin and Alexis Blin just before the hour mark, but the two Frenchmen were unable to help change the tide as Inter eased to victory, moving within 15 points of runaway leaders SSC Napoli after the Partenopei’s unexpected 1-0 defeat at home to Champions League-chasing SS Lazio on Friday night. Lecce, meanwhile, remain 15th, but are nine points above the bottom three.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Hakan Çalhanoğlu (Inter Milan)