How Inter celebrated their Serie A title with five-star performance
Inter celebrated their Scudetto with a 5-1 thrashing of Sampdoria, including an Alexis Sanchez brace and Andrea Pinamonti’s first goal for the club.
The Nerazzurri were crowned Champions of Italy last week with four rounds to spare and were unbeaten in Serie A since their 2-1 defeat away to Sampdoria on January 6, notching up 14 wins and four draws. They were aiming for a 14th consecutive league home victory, having already equalled the all-time club record of 13 set in May 2011.
Samp stood either side of the entrance to the pitch, providing the guard of honour for the new Champions of Italy as they walked out into the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
It took under four minutes to break through, as Matias Vecino robbed Tommaso Augello to spark the counter, Lautaro Martinez found Ashley Young down the left, who laid it off for Roberto Gagliardini to come sliding in.
Gaston Ramirez failed to make the most of a Keita Balde Diao assist, while only Emil Audero’s fingertips prevented Achraf Hakimi from scoring an extraordinary goal with a counter that started in his own penalty area.
Gagliardini was involved in the second goal too, as he found Alexis Sanchez with a smart vertical pass, allowing the Chilean to take a touch and beat Audero.
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Neither side felt any pressure, so it was a wide-open and entertaining game. Jakub Jankto whipped in a cross that Antonio Candreva scuffed horribly at the bac post, Samir Handanovic clawed it off the line, only for Keita to blast in the rebound.
Moments later, Inter restored the two-goal cushion with a wonderful goal, the Hakimi low cross finding Alexis Sanchez for a perfectly-weighted volley into the far bottom corner.
As a Scudetto gift, Antonio Conte gave Ionut Radu his first competitive appearance of the season, replacing Handanovic at half-time, while Samp made radical changes.
Andrea Ranocchia almost scored a stunner, Audero doing well to parry his over-head kick at the near post, but it was substituted Andrea Pinamonti who got the fourth. Nicolò Barella had just come on seconds earlier, his first touch was to control a Hakimi long pass, his second was to flick it across for Pinamonti’s angled drive. It was the striker’s first official goal in the Inter jersey.
Adrien Silva was penalised for using his hand to charge down a Barella shot, which VAR pointed out was inside the area, so Lautaro Martinez buried the penalty in the top corner.