Davide Frattesi bagged a brace before the Lautaro Martinez icing on the cake, as Inter eventually broke an Empoli side down to 10 men for an hour.
The Nerazzurri were still smarting after the chaotic 4-4 draw with Juventus, a game they had been leading 4-2. With Hakan Calhanoglu, Carlos Augusto, Francesco Acerbi and Tajon Buchanan still out, plus Kristjan Asllani and Piotr Zielinski not at 100 per cent, Nicolò Barella became the playmaker and Davide Frattesi stepped in. Empoli were tough to break down, conceding only one goal at home against Napoli, but Sebastiano Esposito, Samuele Perisan and Saba Sazonov were injured.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
Empoli threatened early on with Ola Solbakken’s weak finish at Yann Sommer and Emmanuel Gyasi just failed to get on the end of a corner at the back post.
However, Devis Vasquez flew for an acrobatic save to claw the deflected Federico Dimarco free kick out of the top corner, as it struck Ardian Ismajli.
Matteo Darmian had the ball in the net on 19 minutes when he ran onto the Lautaro Martinez through ball, but it was disallowed for his handling offence.
The game changed on the half-hour mark when Saba Goglichidze got it all wrong on Thuram and caught him studs-up on the shin. It was changed from a yellow card to the red following a VAR On-Field Review, leaving Empoli down to 10 men.
Another Dimarco free kick stung Vasquez’s gloves and Thuram wasn’t ready to meet the Lautaro Martinez header at the back post on a Dimarco corner.
Inter finally took the lead with a curious goal, as Darmian nodded a wayward cross back from the by-line and Frattesi slightly shinned the volley, which gave it a strange swerve that took it into the far top corner.
Thuram’s header flashed just wide, then Vasquez made the reaction save on a Lautaro Martinez header, with Yann Bisseck blasting the rebound over.
Frattesi doubled both his tally and Inter’s lead when Lautaro Martinez’s back-heel flick on a Barella through ball released him to sweep into the far bottom corner with the inside of the right boot.
Barella also skimmed the near post with a first-time right-foot scorcher from the edge of the area, but was then generous when he intercepted a poor Vasquez pass out from the back and instead of going for goal, set up Lautaro Martinez to drill home from six yards for 3-0. That was an historic goal, as it made him the sole all-time top foreign scorer in the Inter jersey.
Tomas Palacios made his Nerazzurri debut in the final minutes of the match.
Empoli 0-3 Inter
Frattesi 50, 67 (I), Lautaro Martinez 79 (I)
Sent off: Goglichidze 31 (E)
Player statistic
| Saba Goglichidze |  |
31' | ||
| Liberato Cacace |  |
38' |
| 50' |  |
Davide Frattesi (Assist: Matteo Darmian) | ||
| 62' | |
Alessandro Bastoni | ||
| 67' | |
Davide Frattesi (Assist: Lautaro Martínez) | ||
| 79' | |
Lautaro Martínez (Assist: Nicolò Barella) |
Match statistic
