Inter Milan lost points in the recent match against Bologna (2:2), which lost the opportunity to reduce the gap to the leader in the table Series And Napoli. In that match, Piotr Zieliński, who was also in the starting lineup against Empoli, played the full 90 minutes in the Milan team.
Inter Milan was struggling against Empoli. Lautaro Martinez's stroke of genius ended the suffering
In the match against a much lower-ranked opponent, the hosts kept the ball longer from the beginning and patiently constructed attacks, although little came of it. Only after about 25 minutes of the game did this result in a dangerous attempt by Lautaro Martinezafter which the ball bounced off the post. The Italian champions could not afford more, and there were no shots on target in the first part. It was difficult to point out any outstanding characters, and Zieliński blended into the background.
As expected, Inter continued to attack after the break. And again, little came of it until Lautaro finally took matters into his own hands. After a pass from Nicolo Barelia, he turned with the ball to shoot and aimed it at the top corner of the goal, making it 1-0. – Just wow, what a shot that was – the commentator enthused Eleven Sports.
Piotr Zieliński did not finish the match between Inter Milan and Empoli. “It's not easy”
The minutes passed and Inter continued to control the course of events on the pitch. In the 69th minute, the decision was made to make the first changes, including removing Zieliński from the pitch. – Discreet performance. […] This is certainly not the best version of Piotr that fans are waiting for Inter. But it is also not easy to achieve this form when you are not regularly in the starting lineup. And the competition at Inter is incredible, said the commentator.
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Ten minutes after the Polish representative left the pitch, the result changed. Kristjan Asllani crossed the ball from a corner kick, and Denzel Dumfries rose in the air and shot a header to make it 2-0 for Inter. In a moment, the Albanian again played from the corner of the field to the Dutchman, who this time did not threaten the Empoli goal.
After a while, Szymon Żurkowski, who had not been seen for a long time, appeared on the pitch and had been absent since March 5 last year. It can be said that his entry mobilized his colleagues. They scored a contact goal, specifically Sebastiano Esposito, a player loaned from Inter, who did not celebrate the goal.
This wasn't the end. Just before the end of regular time, Barella played a through ball to Marko Arnautovic, who nudged the ball towards Marcus Thuram. In a one-on-one situation, he couldn't make a mistake.
21st round of Serie A: Inter Milan – Empoli 3:1
- goal: Lautaro Martinez 55', Denzel Dumfries 79', Marcus Thuram 89' – Sebastiano Esposito 83'
After this match, Inter Milan has 47 points and is in second place in the Serie A table – it is 3 points behind the leader Napoli, but has played one match less. In the next league round, the Milanese will play away against Lecce (January 26), and before that they will face Sparta Prague away in the Champions League (January 22).