It has been a long, hard slog, but Inter are finally back in the top half of the Serie A table after beating Fiorentina 2-0 on Saturday.
Former Fiorentina striker Giampoalo Pazzini opened the scoring on 41 minutes after capitalising on a defensive error and the Yuto Nagamoto doubled the Nerazzurri’s lead four minutes after the break.
This was a good performance by Inter as they totally shut down Fiorentina with Julio Cesar having to make just one save the whole match.
Inter were much better defensively Saturday as Maicon returned for the first time since the 29 October while Lucio partnered Samuel at the back. With all that experience at the back, it wad good to see Ranieri go with some younger legs in midfield as 20-year-old Faraoni started on the right again and the 19-year-old Coutinho got the nod over Alvarez on the left.
The Coutinho-Nagatomo partnership on Inter’s left flank caused the Viola problems all day, so it was no surprise that was where the Inter’s first goal came from. Coutinho showed his vision and class when he chipped in a brilliant ball that allowed Pazzini to run behind the Viola defense, and he calmly knocked the ball past the onrushing Boruc from a tight angle with the outside of his right boot. Really well taken goal from Pazzini and I ho9pe that goal sets him off on a scoring run now.
Inter have not had a lot of luck this season, but they got some four minutes into the second half when Pazzini picked out Nagatomo’s run into the box, Pasqual was ahead of the defender but his clearance came off the Japanese full-back and bounced past Boruc into the net. 2-0 to Inter and game over.
With Genoa (A), Cesena (A) and v Lecce (H) left on the schedule this year, Inter have a great opportunity to go into the winter break on the back of a four game winning streak, a run that could take them up to 5th place in Serie A.
What did you think of Inter’s performance?
