Inter sweep past Red Star to claim first Champions League win

A stunning free-kick from Hakan Calhanoglu opened the scoring in the 11th minute under a downpour in northern Italy, before Marko Arnautovic rolled in his first goal of the campaign on the hour. Captain Lautaro Martinez added a third in the 71st minute and shortly afterwards won the penalty from which Iran forward Mehdi Taremi completed a comfortable home success.

Martinez, who was in line to take the spot-kick with Calhanoglu already substituted, handed Taremi the chance to score his first Inter goal past Israel international goalkeeper Omri Glazer. "I'm glad to score tonight, to play good. Thanks to my teammates. It was great," Taremi said to Sky before suggesting he expected a deep run from his new team.

"Our goal as a big club is to reach the final, as Inter must try to win every game. We'll take it step by step." Tuesday's win moved the Italian champions up to four points and into the top eight positions of the new league phase of the elite club competition, from which teams qualify directly for the last 16, ahead of Wednesday's matches.

It's too early to say whether Inter will avoid the play-offs come next year but Simone Inzaghi's side were too good for Red Star even with seven changes from the team which beat Udinese at the weekend. And Inter have already shown that they can tangle with the best in their goalless draw at Manchester City a fortnight ago.

"It's a win that we needed after playing well in Manchester, but we need to keep moving in this direction," said Inzaghi. Red Star are in 32nd place after losing their first two matches and coach Vladan Milojevic lamented an error strewn performance.

"We gave away four goals, I said after the Benfica game (lost 2-1) that we can't concede those sorts of goals... when you make these kinds of errors you can't do much else," he told reporters.

 

October 1, 2024