Inter late show stuns subdued Spurs

Matt Morley 6 years ago 1.1k |

Reading time: minutes

Icardi's stunner gor Inter's comeback started. AFP

A stunning late comeback from Inter Milan ensured Tottenham got their Champions League campaign off to a disappointing start on Tuesday as they conceded twice in the dying minutes to fall to defeat at the San Siro.

Mauricio Pochettino made five changes from the disappointing 2-1 defeat to Liverpool at the weekend, with three of the players that lined up in defence that day making way.

There were few talking points of note in a dour first half, with both sides largely cancelling each other out.

The visitors just about edged the possession and went closest to opening the scoring first when Christian Eriksen's well-struck free-kick from range was parried away by Samir Handanovic and then when the usually reliable Harry Kane fluffed his lines after being brilliantly picked out by the Dane.

Handanovic was the busier of the two goalkeepers in the first 45, but he wasn't called into anything out of the ordinary.

The half-time whistle came as something of a relief as the sides returned renergised after the break, with Inter looking to take the game to their opponents.

However, it was the visitors who would break the deadlock against the run of play as Eriksen struck lucky.

The classy playmaker saw a low effort kept out by Handanovic, but the Inter defence failed to clear and the ball found its way back to Eriksen, whose second effort took a significant deflection off Roderick Miranda to loop over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

The game threatened to open up finally at that point, with Ivan Perisic heading straight at Michel Vorm from Matteo Politano's cross and Eric Lamela being denied by Handanovic but Spurs quickly regained a stranglehold on the game as they began to control the tempo and slow things down.

Or at least that's how it seemed, but the scriptwriters weren't quite finished with this one.

Mauro Icardi had endured a quiet night on his Champions League debut, but he burst into life with four minutes to go as he met Kwadwo Asamoah's cross from the left "on the Scholes" to guide a laser-guided first-time volley into the far corner from the edge of the box to level the scores.

The hosts threw everything they had at Spurs as the game moved into stoppage time and the pressure eventually told as Inter found the winner in the second of four added minutes.

A corner from the right was headed back into the mixer by Stefan de Vrij and Matias Vecino was alert enough to steal in ahead of Harry Winks to nod home and sparks scenes of delirium at the San Siro.

The win means Inter go second in Group B, trailing Barcelona after their impressive 4-0 victory over PSV at the Camp Nou.