Inter break Young Boys hearts as Thuram nets late winner in Champions League
The hosts gave a great account of themselves in the first half, as Jaouen Hadjam forced Yann Sommer into a smart save inside the opening 20 minutes with his fierce strike taking a wicked deflection. The Swiss goalkeeper was then on hand to stop two back-post headers from finding his far corner, first from Alan Virginius then Lukasz Lakomy.
Inter’s best chance fell to centre-back Yann Bisseck, who continued his mazy run into the box after a delightful Mehdi Taremi flick. Unfortunately for him, David von Ballmoos came out to smother quickly, as the game stayed goalless at half-time.
Despite a strong start from Young Boys, they almost threw it away by giving a needless penalty away right at the start of the second half. Denzel Dumfries was brought down by Hadjam, who after already being booked, was lucky to avoid a second yellow card.
Marko Arnautovic stepped up, but von Ballmoos was equal to his tame effort, then reacted brilliantly to deny Dumfries from close range on the follow-up.
The Austrian was almost made to regret his miss just before the hour mark, as Joel Monteiro struck the post after dribbling to the edge of the box.
Inter pushed for the winner and found it in stoppage time, as Marcus Thuram, who was one of the cavalry brought on from the bench to save them, poked home Federico Dimarco’s cross to break Young Boys hearts.
BSC duly lost their unbeaten home record against Italian teams in the UCL, and remain pointless in this year’s competition, while Inter extended their winning run in all competitions to five matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Marcus Thuram (Inter Milan)