Inter opened Sunday’s Serie A proceedings with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Udinese at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza to keep the pressure on Napoli and Milan. Summer signing Joaquin Correa inspired his side’s success against stubborn Friulian visitors, scoring a quick-fire second-half brace.
Simone Inzaghi’s men continue to build momentum following a two-game winless Serie A streak. After putting two unanswered goals past newly-promoted Empoli in midweek, Inzaghi replicated the identical scoreline against Udinese to temporarily reduce the gap on the early front-runners to four points.
Correa replaced his compatriot Lautaro Martinez in the starting line-up, which has been only his third Serie A start for Inter since arriving from Lazio in the summer. However, the 27-year-old made his presence in Inzaghi’s XI felt, notching up an all-important second-half double to catapult the Nerazzurri past Luca Gotti’s side.
Though he had introduced himself to the Giuseppe Meazza faithful with a match-winning performance against Hellas Verona in late August, several fitness problems have hindered Correa’s progress at Inter. Therefore, marking his first league start since the first week of October has been of the utmost importance for the Argentina international.
“Unfortunately, injuries stopped me for a bit,” Correa said in the aftermath, as cited by SempreInter. “But now I’m getting back into shape and I’m trying to help in any way I can.
“Now let’s think about the Champions League, a match we must win. Then we’ll think about the derby, which will surely be a beautiful day.“
A victory over Udinese should serve as an ideal warm-up ahead of Inter’s trip to Sheriff Tiraspol for a must-win Champions League fixture on Wednesday. The reigning Italian champions have bounced back from an underwhelming Group D start with a 3-1 triumph over the Moldovan outfit at home as they now aim to leapfrog their hosts with another win here.
Correa has made two cameo appearances for Inter in the Champions League, with Inzaghi leaving him on the bench in the abovementioned with over Sheriff. But the Argentine’s performance against Udinese could buy him a starting-eleven ticket come Wednesday.