Inter Milan moved within two points of arch-rivals AC Milan, beating Udinese 2-1 at the Dacia Arena. Simone Inzaghi’s men bounced back from a first league defeat since February as they look to defend their Serie A (SA) crown.
Looking to avoid losing successive SA away matches for the first-time since March 2020, the visitors got off to the perfect start with only 12 minutes on the clock. Ivan Perišić ghosted into the penalty area to slot a perfectly-executed header past Marco Silvestri at his near post.
Looking to register their first top-half SA finish in nine seasons, the hosts were indebted to their goalkeeper moments later, when he palmed Federico Dimarco’s fearsome strike around the post. Things went from bad to worse for Udinese starting when VAR intervened to award a penalty to Inter after Pablo Marí brought down Edin Džeko. Lautaro Martínez stepped up to fortuitously double the visitors’ advantage before HT, heading home the rebound after his spot-kick had struck the post.
Inter picked up where they left off in the opening minutes of the second half as the menacing Džeko surprisingly fluffed his lines in front of goal after perfectly evading the offside trap. With the hosts’ first sight on goal after the interval, Ignacio Pussetto set-up an enthralling final 15 minutes, converting from close-range, after Samir Handanović had done brilliantly to tip Gerard Deulofeu’s free-kick onto the post.
Despite the late scare, Inter kept their composure to register a league double over Udinese and get back to winning ways in the pursuit of leapfrogging AC Milan in the final three matches of the season. Meanwhile, Udinese remain four points adrift of the top half, after failing to secure a first victory over the ‘Nerazzurri’ since December 2017.
