Inter continued their coast to the Serie A title on Monday night with victory over struggling Udinese, but it wasn’t without a fright. The relegation-threatened hosts went ahead in the first half, before Inter hit back through a Hakan Calhanoglu penalty ten minutes into the second period. And when Davide Frattesi popped up in the fifth minute of stoppage time, home hearts were broken.
Inter overcame an inspired Udinese 2-1 thanks to a 95th-minute Davide Frattesi winner and kept their romp to the Serie A title going by restoring a 14-point lead at the top.
The runaway league leaders were the last team relegation-threatened Udinese would have wanted to face, but Gabriele Cioffi’s injury-hit side threw the form book out of the window by taking a gutsy lead just before half-time thanks to a comedy of errors in the visiting defence.
Yann Sommer and Denzel Dumfries each left the other to deal with Lazar Samardzic’s plodding cross-turned shot, and then looked on with horror as it rolled into the net – but that at least finally kicked Inter into life after an equally slow start.
The champions-in-waiting didn’t take long to hit back. After seeing a 48th-minute goal disallowed, Hakan Calhanoglu fired home a penalty soon after and both sides had chances to win it at the death.
But despite extending his goal drought to four games, Lautaro Martinez did contribute in a different way as his injury-time skidded shot thudded into the post and straight back into the path of Frattesi to break home hearts.
The sign of a champion team is they can win without playing their best, and Simone Inzaghi would certainly have had some choice words at the end of a meandering first half.
While controlling much of the ball, Inter were sloppy in possession and that eventually led to Udinese’s goal when Hassane Kamara sprinted onto a wayward pass.
Frattesi was mobbed by his team-mates at the final whistle as if he’d scored a cup-winning strike, perhaps reflecting that Inter knew he’d got them out of jail late on.
However, the three points all count the same and Inter remain on track to take a domineering Serie A title – they could even seal it with a win over city and stadium rivals AC Milan in a fortnight.
