In a rare Serie A blunder this season, Inter let a narrow lead slip through their fingers twice as Cagliari held them to a 1-1 draw. An exciting contest at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza saw Simone Inzaghi’s side struggle to create many scoring opportunities without their captain Lautaro Martinez.
However, Inter opened the scoring early as Alexis Sanchez served Marcus Thuram on a silver platter in the 12th minute. Seemingly satisfied with a slender lead, Nerazzurri tucked themselves in a false sense of security, only to be woken up by Eldor Shomurodov.
The Roma loanee slotted home a rocket missile from the edge of the box to level the score just after the hour mark. Inter found the second only nine minutes later through Hakan Calhanoglu. The Turk was relentless from the spot.
It seemed like Inter would claim another routine win when Nicolas Viola poked the ball past Yann Sommer from point-blank range to give Claudio Ranieri’s side a valuable point. After getting away with a highway robbery at Udinese on Monday, Inzaghi’s team delivered another shaky performance as we look at our player ratings.
Inter (3-5-2)
Yann Sommer – 6
Conceded twice but made several crucial saves to help Inter what would’ve been a shock defeat, including a last-gasp catch to thwart a turnaround.
Alessandro Bastoni – 6.5
While there’s nothing Inzaghi can argue about the Italian’s composure on the ball, it wasn’t his best defensive display by any stretch of the imagination.
Francesco Acerbi – 6
After a dominant start to the game, the veteran gradually declined, especially after Ranieri shook things up with numerous second-half substitutions.
Yann Bisseck – 6.5
It’s impressive how a man of his size can move so quickly, though his tactical awareness can still improve a lot.
Federico Dimarco – 6.5
Despite showing signs of vulnerability at the back, the Italian wing-back’s attacking capacities made his defensive shortcomings pale to insignificance.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 6
He has got Inter fans accustomed to electrifying displays in the midfield, but that wasn’t the case tonight.
Hakan Calhanoglu – 7
It was the closest he came to missing a penalty, but he scored anyway. His passes were clean and precise, although he was reluctant to take many risks in the front third.
Nicolo Barella – 7
Scored a brilliant header that didn’t count for offside. That was the highlight of another superb performance from the diminutive midfielder.
Matteo Darmian – 6
For a defensive-minded right-back, it was a sub-par performance as Zito Luvumbo frustrated him for most of the game with his pace and tireless runs.
Alexis Sanchez – 6.5
Chipped in with a delightful assist to help Inter open the scoring but disappeared from the field afterward. Maybe he should’ve been subbed off earlier.
Marcus Thuram –
All the Frenchman had to do after receiving an inch-perfect low cross from Sanchez was to put the ball in an empty net. But did nothing noteworthy in the follow-up.
Substitutes
Davide Frattesi – 7
Denzel Dumfries – 6
Marko Arnautovic – 5.5
Carlo Augusto – 6
Tajon Buchanan – N/A
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