Inter thrashed Cagliari last night to return to Serie A’s top four, but what lessons did we learn from the game?
Words: Ciro Di Brita
Inter thrashed Cagliari last night to return to Serie A’s top four, but what lessons did we learn from the game?
Words: Ciro Di Brita
Inter’s defence remains solid
The Nerazzurri’s defence had conceded just once in seven games coming into this game and had kept 15 clean sheets in total in the league this season. Leonardo Pavoletti surprisingly started on the bench and that decision made it a nice and quiet night for the home side’s backline. Milan Skriniar and Joao Miranda are two titans at the back at the best of times but were never called into action against the likes of Marco Sau and 37-year-old Andrea Cossu.
Goals finally come from elsewhere
The home team went into this game having not scored in their last three games and were struggling to get other players in amongst the goals that weren’t called Mauro Icardi or Ivan Perisic. The Argentine hitman had 24 goals to his name going into this game, scoring almost half of all Inter’s 50 goals this season. Perisic with nine and centre Milan Skriniar with four had been the only other threats in front of goal for Luciano Spalletti’s men.
The Beneamata were a constant danger from set pieces throughout the game and the opening goal naturally came from one such move. Joao Cancelo’s early free kick from the side-line beat everybody on its way into the net and put the home side into the lead although Icardi was sniffing around in the box and was close to getting a final touch.
Marcelo Brozovic scored Inter’s fourth of the night and his fourth goal of the season and his first since a 3-1 win in the earlier fixture against Cagliari back in November.
Young nineteen-year-old Frenchman Yann Karamoh excelled while making a rare start and brought some much-needed pace and an added bit of spark that had been lacking from his side’s play over the past few weeks.
Icardi finds the net – of course
Icardi netted his 25th goal of the season firing in from close range while Croatian Perisic got his 10th finishing off a smart move from a short free kick.
Cagliari manager opted to make changes for this game with the upcoming weekend’s game with Bologna on his mind and his side played like they had been given the night off.
The Rossoblu had a torrid night and found it difficult to cope with the constant attacks coming down their right flank. Not surprising when they had a striker filling in at right wing back where manager Diego Lopez had for reasons unknown decided to rest Paolo Farago for Niccolo Giannetti. Filippo Romagna was pulled out of position leaving acres of space for Inter to attack, and attack they did.