Serie A leaders Inter squeezed past basement boys Empoli 1-0 despite a dominant performance at the Stadio Carlo Castellani. Simone Inzaghi’s men continued their rich vein of form in Tuscany, making it five consecutive away league wins over Gli Azzurri ‘to nil.’
After a 5-1 thrashing of Milan last weekend preserved their 100% top-flight start, Inter came into proceedings seeking a fifth successive win at the beginning of the new campaign. Simone Inzaghi was looking to become only the fourth Nerazzurri manager to achieve this feat, and his men delivered.
Inter assumed control of the game from the get-go but couldn’t create many presentable scoring chances in the early goings. Matteo Darmian was closest to opening the scoring, yet Ardian Ismajli cleared his header off the line. However, newly-appointed coach Aurelio Andreazzoli could tell his side would be in for a long afternoon.
Empoli failed to gain a foothold in the game. They at least did a decent job keeping Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram at bay. The latter did find the net toward the end of the first half, but the linesman raised the flag for offside. Davide Frattesi nearly added to his Inter account minutes later.
The Italian broke one-on-one with Etrit Berisha, who pulled off a decent save to deny him from close range. Despite enduring the siege in the first half, Empoli fell behind soon after the break. Federico Dimaro drew a round of applause from the home crowd after thumping a first-time volley from outside the box into the top corner.
While Inter didn’t do much in the remainder of the game, they preserved their lead with relative ease. They had to survive a late scaring moment, though. Yann Sommer had to make a diving save to thwart Tommaso Baldanzi from point-blank and condemn Empoli to a five-game scoreless start to Serie A.
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