Denzel Dumfries and Lautaro Martinez – on the first Marcus Thuram assist in Serie A – allowed Inter to lock down victory in Cagliari within the opening half-hour.
Match Report
The Nerazzurri picked the same XI that beat Monza 2-0, as Francesco Acerbi was still out and Matteo Darmian shook off an ankle knock. The hosts held Torino to a goalless draw and were still missing Gianluca Lapadula, Marko Rog and Marco Mancosu, but Gaetano Oristanio faced his parent club.
Lautaro Martinez was unlucky not to open the scoring on 14 minutes when a poor Makoumbou clearance looped up, he watched it come down and hit a low, hard left-foot volley that bounced off the inside of the far post.
Leonardo Pavoletti nodded off target, but Inter broke through when Marcus Thuram timed the through ball perfectly for Denzel Dumfries to place an angled drive across the goalkeeper.
The Nerazzurri picked the same XI that beat Monza 2-0, as Francesco Acerbi was still out and Matteo Darmian shook off an ankle knock. The hosts held Torino to a goalless draw and were still missing Gianluca Lapadula, Marko Rog and Marco Mancosu, but Gaetano Oristanio faced his parent club.
Lautaro Martinez was unlucky not to open the scoring on 14 minutes when a poor Makoumbou clearance looped up, he watched it come down and hit a low, hard left-foot volley that bounced off the inside of the far post.
Leonardo Pavoletti nodded off target, but Inter broke through when Marcus Thuram timed the through ball perfectly for Denzel Dumfries to place an angled drive across the goalkeeper.
There was more bad news for Cagliari, who lost Pavoletti to a thigh problem, and Tommaso Augello’s chest and volley was easily captured.
Zito Luvumbo had penalty appeals when he dribbled away from Darmian and went down between a combination of Juan Cuadrado and Alessandro Bastoni, but the referee waved play on.
Luvumbo also saw his pull-back from the by-line cleared with difficulty, but Cagliari only really started to push once Inter visibly took their foot off the gas.
Calhanoglu had a great chance to add a third in the final minutes, but his strike from the edge of the box was deflected onto the inside of the upright by Dossena.
Paulo Azzi should’ve done better moments later at the far stick, but scuffed the finish, allowing Yann Sommer to make a reaction save.
Line-ups
Cagliari XI: Pavoletti, Tommaso Augello, Radunovic, N. Nández, Jankto, Alberto Dossena, Antoine Makoumbou, Gabriele Zappa, Gaetano Oristanio, Adam Obert, Ibrahim Sulemana
Subs: Viola, Simone Aresti, Simone Scuffet, Goldaniga, Deiola, Eldor Shomurodov, Alessandro Di Pardo, Zito Luvumbo, Paulo Azzi, Christos Kourfalidis, Matteo Prati
Inter XI: Sommer, Darmian, Mkhitaryan, De Vrij, Calhanoglu, Dimarco, Barella, Thuram, Dumfries, Lautaro, Bastoni
Subs: Arnautovic, Cuadrado, Raffaele Di Gennaro, Sensi, Emil Audero, Frattesi, Yann Bisseck, Carlos Augusto, Agoume, Kristjan Asllani, Aleksandar Stankovic, A. Sarr, Tommaso Guercio
Hritangshu93
124
Lautaro always nets in league games....he just needs to prove himself in UCL big matches and for Argentina as well