Inter Milan’s late goals against Sampdoria helps them to climb to second spot – Serie A update
Inter Milan beat Sampdoria 2-0 in a Serie A encounter at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday evening. Late goals from Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto’o helped the visitors to move up to the second spot in the league table.
Leonardo made four changes to his starting line-up that lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the Uefa Champion’s league last 16 round first leg in the midweek. Gimpaolo Pazzini and Houssine Kharja returned to the starting line-up after being ineligible in the Champion’s
League. On the other hand, Domenico di Carlo made three changes to his side that played a stalemate draw against Fiorentina last weekend. Massimo Maccarone and Stefano Guberti started upfront in a 4-4-2 formation for the hosts.
The first half started in attacking fashion as the visitors showed some scoring intent at the start. Inter made a flurry of openings and troubled the host defence regularly looking to make inroads as early as possible. Inter’s first real goal scoring opportunity
came in the 15th minute, when Sneijder whipped a beautiful shot from free kick but Gianluca Curci made a nice save to clear it to safety and keep the score nil. The visitors enjoyed 65 per cent of possession in the first half hour and clearly dominated
the game. Sampdoria came close to scoring in the 38th minute, when Andrea Rannocchia produced an important last ditch block to deny Reto Ziegler from close range. The hosts could have scored on the brink of the half time whistle, when Andrea Poli’s
shot rattled against the woodwork to deny Sampdoria a goal.
The second half started at a slow pace, as both teams worked hard to create any opportunities. Sampdoria came close to scoring just after the hour mark, when Maccarone latched beautifully to a long ball but Julio Cesar came out of his line to smother the
attack. Inter replaced Kharja with Goran Pandev to increase their attacking options in search of a winner.
A moment of brilliance from Sneijder produced the first goal of the evening in the 74th minute. The Dutch midfielder curled in a beautiful shot from 25 yards, which rocketed into the net to make it 1-0 for the hosts. Three minutes later, Sneijder
almost replicated his effort from the free kick but it went just wide of the post.
Eto’o scored Inter’s second of the evening in the last play. The Cameroonian clinically finished a low shot past the goalkeeper to seal the game at 2-0 for the visitors.
Inter Milan play their next match against Genoa on 6th March, while Sampdoria play Cesena the same day.