Inter's late smash-and-grab at Venezia keeps pace with Lazio
An own goal and a deflected Carlos Augusto header gave Inter a 2-0 win over bottom club Venezia, extending a pattern of narrow, late victories as the Nerazzurri move level with Lazio ahead of Saturday's derby with Milan.
Inter needed until the final ten minutes to beat bottom-of-the-table Venezia 2-0, a Matias Moreno own goal and a deflected Carlos Augusto header securing three points that keep them level with Lazio at the top of Serie A on 25 points, Football Italia reported.
It continued a theme for Cristian Chivu's side, who had already needed two added-time goals to beat Fiorentina 2-1 at the weekend. Lautaro Martinez, Benjamin Pavard, Curtis Jones, John Stones and Luis Henrique all remained unavailable, and Ivan Provedel kept his place in goal for a second straight match.
Venezia arrived having beaten Napoli on Davide Nicola's debut as coach before reverting to type with a 1-0 defeat at Genoa. Andrea Adorante, Thierry Correia, Marin Sverko and Bartol Franjic were long-term absentees for the home side, who also fielded a subplot in Filip Stankovic facing his brother Aleksandar, making his first Inter start in midfield.
Chances went begging before the breakthrough
The first half produced little in the way of clean openings but plenty of contested moments. Federico Dimarco's curling effort drifted wide, and Petar Sucic had a penalty shout waved away for minimal contact with Thorir Helgason as he changed direction. Lion Lauberbach had a near-identical coming-together with Yann Bisseck that also went unreviewed.
Provedel was the busier of the two goalkeepers in open play, parrying an Akor Adams effort with one hand before changing direction to push away a deflected Kike Perez free-kick, only for Lauberbach's follow-up to be ruled offside by VAR. Moments later Venezia broke again, Provedel somehow turning a Lauberbach finish onto the crossbar before the striker's header on the rebound drifted just off target.
Chivu's response was a triple substitution at half-time, a sign he was unhappy with how little territory or control Inter had managed despite the balance of play tilting in Venezia's favour on the counter. The changes did not immediately transform the match: Marcus Thuram tested Filip Stankovic from distance without reward, and Gianluca Busio somehow put a close-range chance over the bar on the hour mark that should have given Venezia the lead.
Venezia thought they had taken that lead in the 71st minute when Adams dribbled past Provedel after a John Yeboah through ball, but the offside flag denied them again. Thuram then missed two further opportunities of his own, prodding wide from a Francesco Pio Esposito pass and heading narrowly over from a Carlos Augusto cross.
Late goals built from small margins
The breakthrough, when it came, arrived from a transition rather than sustained pressure. Carlos Augusto won the ball off Simon Sohm to launch the counter-attack, Thuram pulled the ball back from the byline, and Moreno's attempted clearance at the near post looped into his own net. Venezia's complaints that a foul had been missed in the build-up were dismissed.
Two minutes later Inter doubled their advantage from a set piece, Carlos Augusto glancing a header from a Hakan Calhanoglu corner that took a deflection off Redouane Halhal's chest on its way in. Neither goal was manufactured by sustained build-up play; both came from moments where Inter's directness in transition and at the corner converted marginal contact into decisive outcomes.
A pattern that keeps repeating for Chivu's side
The shape of the afternoon fits a wider trend. Inter struggled to create clear chances against a low block that Venezia, despite sitting bottom of the table, organised well enough to generate their own counter-attacking openings through Lauberbach and Adams. Provedel's saves and the offside calls against Venezia were as decisive as anything Inter manufactured themselves in open play.
That Inter twice needed a deflection and an own goal to beat the division's bottom side, having also needed stoppage-time goals against Fiorentina days earlier, points to a team still searching for control rather than relying on it. The finishing misses from Thuram and the earlier failure of Ange-Yoan Bonny to connect with a Thuram pull-back suggest the chances exist; converting them without the help of fortune has not.
Inter's position atop the table alongside Lazio on 25 points sets up a derby against Milan on Saturday, the Guardian reported. Milan arrive at that fixture off the back of their first league defeat of the season, beaten 4-2 at home by Bologna, with a Samuel Mbangula hat-trick overturning Alphadjo Cisse's double and ending Ruben Amorim's unbeaten run.