Inter Milan won their first match of this season’s revamped Champions League on Tuesday by sweeping aside Crvena Zvezda 4-0 at the San Siro.
A stunning free-kick from Hakan Calhanoglu opened the scoring in the 11th minute under a downpour, before Mark 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.
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 continental competition, from which teams qualify directly for the last 16.
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 Crvena Zvezda 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.
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.
The 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 which bears his name who was stabbed to death by fellow Inter ultra Andrea Beretta.
However 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.
Marko Arnautovic and Denzel Dumfries were both flagged offside as they netted while Henrikh Mkhitaryan wasted two great chances to added 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 off former AC Milan midfielder Rade Krunic.
Crvena Zvezda 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.
