After the guest game in Bologna had fallen through due to corona, Inter Milan started the new year against Lazio Rome – and in the end quite successfully. The 2-1 win was not only Milan’s eighth league victory in a row, but also the end of a run by Lazio coach Mauricio Sarri.
The difficulty of Lazio’s task was evident just from looking at two remarkable statistics: Inter Milan were unbeaten in 26 home games and, on top of that, entered the match knowing that they had won all of their last six league games without conceding a goal. So how to deal with this Inter? The Romans tried a counter-attacking tactic, but had the problem that Inter were well prepared. No wonder, given that Milan coach Simone Inzaghi had been Lazio coach for years.
It was a game that did not offer many highlights, both teams were simply too present defensively. Inter, however, were the superior team, had visual advantages and in the 19th minute already had a goal on their lips. The joy over Martinez’s supposed 1:0 was short-lived, however, because the VAR intervened and called offside.
So Milan had to wait a while before they could celebrate the deserved lead. After half an hour that was the case: A corner from the right landed with Bastoni, who unpacked his left stick from the second row and scored into the left corner – 1:0.
Skriniar is the master of the air
Lazio’s answer was not long in coming, which was also due to somewhat too friendly gestures by the home side: first de Vrij misjudged a ball that was kicked forward, then Handanovic also flew past and Immobile, who had previously resolutely asserted himself against Skriniar, scored the flattering equaliser (35.).
The score remained that way until deep into the second half, the mutual respect was obviously too great. The champions, however, did not want to settle for the point, stepped up a gear after the hour and came close to a 2-1 lead through Sanchez (63rd, direct free kick) and Dumfries and Perisic (67th, double chance).
It was Skriniar who scored on 67 minutes when he rose beautifully to meet a Bastoni cross and powerfully headed past Strakosha, who was stuck on his line.
Lazio coach Mauricio Sarri, who had not lost to Inter in seven duels as coach (5-2-0), reacted to the deficit, bringing on Luis Alberto and returning to the usual system with two eights (Luis Alberto and Milinkovic-Savic). And the Romans tried it again, letting themselves be seen more and more in the opponent’s half in the final phase, only the second-best defence in the league behind Napoli (15 goals conceded) did not let anything happen and thus managed to keep the three-goal lead.