Inter 3-0 Spezia: Dominant Nerazzurri cruise to victory
By Tom Gott
Inter put on a show on Saturday evening as they cruised to a 3-0 victory over Spezia.
Goals from Lautaro Martinez, Hakan Calhanoglu and Joaquin Correa were more than enough to seal a routine win which inspired the kind of confidence that was missing from the nervy season-opener against Lecce.
The linesman was the busiest person on the pitch in the opening exchanges, with Spezia's high line catching Inter offside time and time and time again before Martinez beat the trap and got a nice shot away which was well saved by Bartlomiej Dragowski.
The Nerazzurri started ramping up the pressure as Martinez hit the side-netting and Denzel Dumfries struck over the crossbar, before the former finally made the breakthrough 35 minutes in. A ferocious half-volley following a Romelu Lukaku knock-down was far too much for the Spezia stopper. 1-0.
The score stayed that way until half time but by no means told the full story of the first half. Inter were absolutely running rampant, dominating possession and firing 13 shots on goal without allowing any from their opponents, whose hearts were in their mouths as Lukaku sent a header off the bar shortly before the break.
Inter maintained that pressure into the second half and doubled their advantage seven minutes in. Milan Skriniar's pass was deflected into the path of Calhanoglu who drove the ball home from just inside the area to remove any doubt that may have been lingering about this result.
It all got a bit ugly after that, with Spezia committing foul after foul in a desperate attempt to stop Inter from running away with this one.
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The visitors even managed a few shots off target as we hit the 70-minute mark. The first was blocked and second went over the bar, with Inter comfortably dealing with the rare threat.
With the victory all but sealed, Simone Inzaghi rested his big names, bringing Lukaku, Martinez and Calhanoglu off - Nicolo Barella was heading off initially before Inzaghi realised the assistant had put the wrong number up on his board.
On in Martinez's place came Joaquin Correa, who added Inter's third of the night eight minutes from time.
Edin Dzeko intelligently played the ball into the path of his fellow substitute, who shrugged off a defender to fire home and cap off a victory full of the kind of composure and bravery that fans were hoping to see.