Serie A | Fiorentina 0-1 Inter: Lautaro ruthless, Nico denied

Lautaro Martinez was ruthless to send Inter top of the table, but Nico Gonzalez missed a penalty on his Fiorentina comeback from injury.

The Nerazzurri were fresh from winning the Supercoppa Italiana, but Hakan Calhanoglu and Nicoló Barella were suspended, with Juan Cuadrado injured. The Viola lost the semi-final in Riyadh, leaving Cristiano Biraghi banned, Gaetano Castrovilli, Dodo and Oliver Christensen sidelined and Christian Kouame at AFCON. Riccardo Sottil pulled out in the warm-up, replaced by M’Bala Nzola.

There was a lot at stake, as a win would give Inter the leadership with a game in hand against Juventus ahead of the Scudetto showdown, while the hosts needed a victory to retake fourth from Atalanta.

Nzola caused a huge scare for Yann Sommer in the opening minutes with the high press, but was caught offside.

Lautaro Martinez was onside when intercepting a wayward Lucas Martinez-Quarta pass and seeing the strike deflected over by Luca Ranieri.

Nzola was offside again when running onto a ball over the top and nutmegging Sommer to score on 11 minutes.

Marcus Thuram showed him how it’s done by springing the offside trap to roll across for the Carlos Augusto tap-in, denied by an extraordinary Marco Davide Faraoni sliding block.

On the resulting Kristjan Asllani corner, Lautaro Martinez shrugged off a weak Fabiano Parisi to nod in at the near top corner.

1⃣2⃣4⃣ goals

Lautaro Martinez is now level with Mauro Icardi as Inter Milan's all-time top scorer! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/F3vvLurAvP

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 28, 2024

There was an odd moment when Thuram sprinted clear on goal only to trip up over his own feet, then Davide Frattesi’s low drive was parried by Pietro Terracciano.

Sommer made an even more sensational fingertip save at full stretch to push the Giacomo Bonaventura effort over the bar. On the resulting corner, Ranieri had strong penalty appeals rejected for an Alessandro Bastoni wrestle.

Bastoni made a decisive block in the six-yard box on Nzola and Parisi’s cross-shot skimmed the far post with Sommer stranded.

Nico Gonzalez made his comeback after six weeks out with a thigh strain, while Marko Arnautovic had the ball in the net on 64 minutes, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan was clearly offside on the assist.

Nzola had two very promising situations only to prod both at Sommer, but there was a chaotic move when Sommer punched the ball off the head of Nzola – catching the striker’s face in the process – and as the move continued, Benjamin Pavard made a goal-line clearance on Martinez-Quarta.

A penalty was awarded following the VAR review on that Sommer punch, but Nico Gonzalez stepped up and his weak, central effort was practically a back-pass to the goalkeeper. He had never before failed to convert a Serie A penalty, but it was incredibly the fifth missed spot-kick in Serie A Week 22.

The Viola poured forward, but wasted a series of corners with headers off target.

Fiorentina 0-1 Inter

Lautaro Martinez 14 (I)

Saved penalty: Nico Gonzalez 77 (F)