Internazionale hands leader Napoli first league defeat

Sunday, November 21, 2021 at 20:00

Internazionale handed Napoli the first league defeat of the season in their own Giuseppe Meazza on Sunday evening. Filippo Inzaghi’s side reversed Piotr Zielinski’s opening goal through goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, Ivan Perisic and Lautaro Martínez. Dries Mertens’ connecting goal, a nice shot from the distance ten minutes before the end, came too late. The win put Inter in third place in Serie A with 28 points from 13 matches. The gap to leader Napoli is still four points.

Denzel Dumfries started on the bench at Inter, while Stefan de Vrij was absent due to an injury sustained by the Dutch national team. The home team created the first danger of the game after six minutes, when Martínez headed over the goal on a pass from Marcelo Brozovic. There were no great opportunities in the remainder of the opening phase. With fifteen minutes on the clock, it was the team of coach Luciano Spalletti that took the lead. Nicolò Barella suffered a sloppy loss of the ball, after which Napoli came out very quickly. Lorenzo Insigne gave wide to the following Piotr Zielinski, who shot hard in the top right corner from the edge of the penalty area: 0-1.

Halfway through the first half, the home side had the perfect opportunity to come alongside. Barella saw his attempt for goal end up on the arm of Kalidou Koulibaly within the penalty area, after which referee Paolo Valeri decided to put the ball on the spot after the intervention of the VAR. Calhanoglu sent David Ospina the wrong way from eleven meters: 1-1. Ten minutes before half time, Napoli had a good opportunity to take the lead for the second time. However, Victor Osimhen shot from close range against Milan Skriniar. The game was then completely turned around by Inter on the stroke of half-time, when Ivan Perisic headed in a Calhanoglu corner from a tricky corner near the near post: 2-1.

The initial phase of the second company was clear for Inter. Calhanoglu found Martínez, who forced Ospina to a clever save. Napoli suffered a major setback not much later, when Victor Osimhen collided hard with Skriniar. The striker was unable to continue and was replaced by Andrea Petagna. After an hour of play, the home team managed to increase the margin. Joaquín Correa gave the counter to Martínez, after which the attacker passed Ospina with a low slide in the long corner: 3-1.

Ten minutes before the end, substitute Dries Mertens brought back the tension in the match. The Belgian took advantage of Edin Dzeko’s sloppy loss of the ball and then shot the ball beautifully from about twenty meters behind Samir Handanovic: 3-2. Napoli failed to maintain their unbeaten status in the competition in the final phase. A header from Mário Rui ended up on top of the crossbar in injury time via Ospina, after which Mertens was also unhappy in the completion. The winger seemed to give Napoli a point, but failed.

No. Team m W G V +/- Pnt
1 Napoli 12 10 2 0 20 32
2 AC Milan 13 10 2 1 14 32
3 Internazionale 12 7 4 1 16 25
4 Atalanta 13 7 4 2 10 25
5 Lazio 13 6 3 4 4 21
6 Fiorentina 13 7 0 6 3 21
7 Juventus 13 6 3 4 3 21
8 AS Roma 12 6 1 5 6 19
9 Bologna 13 5 3 5 -5 18
10 Hellas Verona 12 4 4 4 4 16
11 empoli 12 5 1 6 -5 16
12 Sassuolo 13 4 3 6 -1 15
13 Venice 13 4 3 6 -7 15
14 Torino 12 4 2 6 3 14
15 Udinese 12 3 5 4 -3 14
16 sampdoria 13 3 3 7 -8 12
17 special 13 3 2 8 -16 11
18 Genoa 12 1 6 5 -7 9
19 Cagliari 13 1 4 8 -13 7
20 Salernitana 13 2 1 10 -18 7