Inter Milan won their first match of this season’s revamped Champions League on Tuesday by sweeping aside Red Star Belgrade 4-0 at the San Siro.
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.
Ultras arrests
The match was played against the backdrop of mass arrests of leading figures within both Inter and AC Milan’s hardcore ultras fan groups for a variety of crimes relating to illegal profits made around matches.
Police arrested 19 people, almost all ultras, on Monday for “criminal conspiracy aggravated by mafia methods, extortion, assault and other serious crimes”.
The alleged crimes involve activities around the San Siro stadium on matchdays, ranging from ticket touting to control of parking, sales from concession stands and taking payment from people without tickets and letting them into the stadium.
Monday’s arrests came after a long investigation into both clubs’ ultras and the shocking killing last month of Antonio Bellocco, the scion of a powerful ‘Ndrangheta clan who was stabbed to death by fellow Inter ultra Andrea Beretta.
Investigators from the finance police and anti-mafia authorities said on Monday that Inter and Milan were not being probed and that the pair had been “damaged” by the affair.
Those arrests and the soaking wet weather in Milan didn’t dampen the atmosphere in the Curva Nord section of the San Siro, where Inter’s loudest fans stood and roared their team from the first minute.
The whole stadium was on its feet and bouncing after Calhanoglu whipped in his beautiful free-kick to put the hosts ahead as Inter dominated proceedings.
Arnautovic and Denzel Dumfries were both flagged offside as they netted while Henrikh Mkhitaryan wasted two great chances to add to Inter’s deserved lead.
Mkhitaryan just failed to get a proper foot on Piotr Zielinski’s brilliant cross in the 58th minute, but moments later Arnautovic rolled in Inter’s second after Taremi robbed the ball from former AC Milan midfielder Rade Krunic.
Red Star crumbled and Martinez scored his third goal of the season after another fine assist from Taremi, who was given a gift from his Argentine strike partner as thanks for his sterling work up front which helped Inter secure a fine win.
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