Sunday, January 9, 2022 at 10:45 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 22:47

Internazionale did excellent business in Serie A on Sunday evening. Simone Inzaghi’s team was 2-1 too strong for Lazio at home due to hits from Alessandro Bastoni and Milan Skriniar. It marked the twelfth game in a row in the competition in which the Milanese remained without defeat. Inter regains the lead with the win and now has one point more than AC Milan (49 against 48). In addition, Inzaghi’s formation played one game less.

Inzaghi had cleared a starting spot for Denzel Dumfries, the right-hand wingback preferred to Matteo Darmian. Stefan de Vrij was stationed at the heart of the three-man defence. The first big chance of the game was noted after fifteen minutes of play. Nicolò Barella produced a great cross towards the far post, which Ivan Perisic headed right over. Two minutes later, Inter thought they could open the score after all. Alexis Sánchez took the ball with his back to the enemy goal and gave the lead to Lautaro Martínez, who found the bottom left corner. The latter, however, was just offside and the goal was disallowed.

In the 29th minute of play, Martínez again came close to the opening goal. On a pass from Dumfries, he had an acrobatic volley in the house, but goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha converted the hard effort into a corner. It was a hit from the corner kick from Sánchez. The falling ball landed on the edge of the box in front of Bastoni, who placed the leather in the bottom corner with a watched attempt: 1-0. Five minutes later, however, Lazio came alongside. Danilo Cataldi sent a deep ball from the center line. With that he got both De Vrij and Samir Handanovic in trouble, allowing Ciro Immobile to take advantage. The striker put the ball into an empty goal: 1-1.

In the second half it was mainly Inter that struck the clock. A free kick from Sánchez could only just be picked from the top corner by Strakosha, after which the Lazio goalkeeper also had an excellent response to a bet by Dumfries. The right back suddenly appeared dangerously in front of the goal, but couldn’t get his shoe against the ball enough. The lead followed two minutes later. After a measured cross from Bastoni, Skriniar headed hard through the bottom of the bar. Immobile thought to give Lazio a point not much later, but his goal was rejected for offside.