Inter comfortably defeated Stjarnan 6-0 in a Thursday night Europa League match at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
The Nerazzurri came into the came with a 3-0 advantage from the first leg, and now advance in the Europa League after Mateo Kovacic scored a hat trick, Mauro Icardi scored a brace, and Pablo Osvaldo added a goal in a came in the rout which gave Inter a 9-0 aggregate victory.
The match opened with play confined largely in the Stjarnan half. Hernanes and Kovacic nearly unlocked the Icelanders’ back line with passes in the first five minutes.
Kovacic, Yann M’Vila, and Joel Obi snuffed out Stjarnan’s attempts to counter-attack, and the visitors’ box was soon besieged by a rapid fire of Nerazzurri crosses.
Osvaldo saw at least four early chances on goal, including a header which glanced off the crossbar, but the wait for a goal came just before the half hour, as Kovacic at last scored, cleaning up Osvaldo’s blocked header from six yards.
The Croatian midfielder made it a brace minutes later, racing onto a beautiful Osvaldo back-heeled pass from the midfield, to burst through the Stjarnan defense, and beat keeper Ingvar Jonsson with a chipped shot.
Seconds after the break, Osvaldo added to the scoreline, rising high above Daniel Laxdal to powerfully head in a Yuto Nagatomo cross.
Kovacic got his hat-trick shortly after, collecting a Nagatomo pass on the edge of the box and driving a shot low past the diving Jonsson at the far post.
The midfielder made way for striker Icardi to a round of applause from the San Siro, midway through the second period. Stjarnan began to sustain possession, but remained unable to create dangerous chances in the final third of the pitch.
Osvaldo almost made it five from a counter attack following a Stjarnan corner kick, but his chip over the sliding Jonsson was too weak, and Nicklas Vemmelund cleared it off the line.
The rout continued with Icardi finding the back of the net. The striker ran onto an incisive through ball from Zdravko Kuzmanovic. Turning back with his first touch, shaking off his marker, before leaving Jonsson flailing for a powerful bending shot to the far corner.
Icardi got his brace ten minutes from time, following a Jonathan through ball into the box, the Argentinian held off Vemmelund, and chipped Jonsson.
The striker almost followed with a hat trick goal, again running onto a Kuzmanovic through pass, but Jonsson did well to slide into the shot.
