Inter maintained their grip on the top of the Serie A table on Wednesday night, beating Hellas Verona 1-0 at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
The Nerazzurri extended their winning start to the campaign to five matches thanks to Felipe Melo’s header, as a summer of heavy investment pays off in emphatic style.
Despite their red-hot form going into this match, Inter seemed to be struggling to get their match lit in the first half, going through half the box to no avail.
Highlights in the first 45 were few and far between, but Ivan Perisic did force a save from visiting goalkeeper Rafael after Fredy Guarin had a shot charged down.
An ambitious scissor kick from Geoffrey Kondogbia wrapped up a frustrating first half for Roberto Mancini’s men.
Emerging for the second half, the heavily favoured home side were rattled when Verona’s gameplan took a turn for the more ambitious.
Jacopo Sala took a precious second to line up his sights before thumping a shot against the crossbar from outside of the penalty area.
That heart-stopping moment was just what Inter needed, as within a minute they had taken the lead.
A bullet header from a corner was courtesy of midfield bulldog Felipe Melo, who was in full control as he leapt highest to give his side the advantage.
Inter are yet to bulldoze their way past an opposition team so far this season, and their search of doubling the lead in this fixture was again found to be fruitless.
Fiorentina’s victory over Bologna brings them to second place in the table, three points behind Inter.
Meanwhile, Verona are one of just three teams in the league to have not registered a single victory so far this campaign, with three draws and two losses forming an uninspiring record.
