The Nerazzurri win a rollercoaster of a match thanks to Sensi's late finish
2023 Club Friendlies
3-4
Match Report
It finished 4-3 to Inter at the Red Bull Arena this evening. In a highly competitive match where the pouring rain played a big part, Konate initially gave the hosts the lead, but the Nerazzurri hit back straight away through a Pavlovic own goal from a Dimarco cross. De Vrij then made it 2-1 before Konate grabbed an equaliser. Correa restored Inter's advantage, only for Baidoo to head home at the start of a second half that finished with Sensi bagging a fantastic 90th-minute winner.
The game began with an Inter chance as Barella found Mkhitaryan, who failed to keep the ball down from a good position. The hosts were then awarded a penalty. Konate failed to convert it but opened the scoring just moments later. It took just three minutes for Inter to equalise as Dimarco played in a cross that Pavlovic diverted into his own net. In the 16th minute, Dimarco picked out Barella in behind but the latter was unable to win the 1v1 battle with the goalkeeper. The Nerazzurri started to go through the gears and took the lead through De Vrij after the hosts had failed to clear Barella's ball into the middle. The Austrians soon responded through a Konate header with 34 minutes on the clock. The back-and-forth nature of the opening period continued as Correa got on the end of a perfect Dumfries cross to head Inter in front in the 42nd minute.
With the heavy rain slowing the ball down at the Red Bull Arena, the intensity dropped in the second half, even if the home side scored straight away through Baidoo. Simone Inzaghi's side looked to respond as Barella and Mkhitaryan combined, with the latter seeing his volley saved by Mantl. Bastoni also came close to scoring from a Calhanoglu free-kick. In the 64th minute, another penalty was given to Salzburg. Once again, the Austrian side missed it as Simic shot wide. Shortly afterwards, Frattesi produced a fantastic acrobatic effort but was thwarted by the goalkeeper. However, Mantl could do nothing about the winner, which arrived in the 90th minute: Asllani found Sensi with a brilliant ball over the top, and the Italian displayed excellent composure to control it and fire into the net.
Inter's penultimate pre-season friendly thus finished in a 4-3 victory. At 20:00 CEST on Sunday 13 August, the Nerazzurri will face Albanian side Egnatia in Ferrara.
Line-ups
Salzburg XI: Solet, Nico Mantl, Aleksa Terzic, Amar Dedic, Mads Bidstrup, S. Pavlovic, Maurits Kjaergaard, Lucas Gourna-Douath, Amankwah Forson, Karim Konaté, Oscar Gloukh
Subs: Alexander Schlager, Kamil Piatkowski, Samson Tijani, Bryan Okoh, Lukas Wallner, Roko Simic, Samson Baidoo, Dorgeles Nene, Dijon Kameri, Leandro Morgalla, Zeteny Jano, Mohammad Sadeqi
Inter XI: Sommer, Darmian, Mkhitaryan, De Vrij, Calhanoglu, Correa, Dimarco, Barella, Thuram, Dumfries, Bastoni
Subs: Cuadrado, Raffaele Di Gennaro, Lazaro, Sensi, Gosens, Frattesi, Yann Aurel Bisseck, Filip Stankovic, Esposito, Kristjan Asllani, Aleksandar Stankovic, Giacomo Stabile