A goal in each half saw Inter defeat Chievo 2-0 at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegdoi on Monday night.
Mateo Kovacic gave the Nerazzurri scored midway through the first half before a second half goal from Inter captain Andrea Ranocchia made the points safe.
Inter started brightly as they looked to end a wretched run of five without a win but Roberto Mancini’s side were lucky not to fall behind after eight minutes.
A cleared Chievo corner was returned towards goal and found Alberto Paloschi right on top of Samir Handanovic. However the one-time Milan striker wastefully headed straight at the Inter goalkeeper and the chance was gone.
Inter began to dominate possession and nullify their hosts and the Flying Donkey’s failed to heed the warning signs as the Nerazzurri forged ahead on 19 minutes.
A diagonal ball from left to right was headed back across the box by Icardi, Guarin made a nuisance of himself which allowed the ball to fall perfectly to the run of Kovacic to slot home his third goal of the season.
Chievo almost found a stunning leveller when Gennaro Sardo acrobatically volleyed into the area only to see Riccardo Meggiorini try to replicate his heroics against Cagliari last week. However, this time the bicycle kick brought an excellent save from Handanovic.
While the opening period was open and entertaining, the half ended with challenges that would have been more at home in combat sports.
Juan Jesus somehow failed to be booked for a number of scraps, while Chievo were lucky neither Botjan Caesar or Meggiorini were sent off for crude challenges on Kovacic, escaping with just cautions.
The break seemed to allow the sides to calm down and Yuto Nagatomo almost double Inter’s lead inside a minute of the restart but flashed his shot across and wide of Bazzarri’s goal.
That ushered in the best spell for Chievo as their lively front pairing of Paloschi and Meggiorini should have drawn them level as Chievo as began to press and break on an increasingly nervous Inter defence.
After a three on two developed on the break, Paloschi out muscled Jesus but could only poke wide, while Meggiorini found the net moments later only to be correctly flagged offside.
That was as good as it got for Rolando Maran’s men as Inter doubled their lead to suck the life out of their opponents.
After a failed corner, Danilo D’Ambrosio returned it into the six yard box where Ranocchia showed the instincts of a striker to drift across his man and direct the ball into the net for 2-0 before the hour mark.
The only other flash point was when substitute Ruben Botta – on-loan from the Nerazzuri – managed to see red for a challenge on Zdravko Kuzmanovic, just eight minutes after coming on.
That allowed Inter to see out the rest of the match comfortably on the night Mancini returned Inter to winning ways.
