Five-star Inter crush Chievo to top Serie A

Five-star Inter crush Chievo to top Serie A

Date: 3rd December 2017 at 5:03pm
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Inter leapfrogged Napoli and moved into first place in the Serie A table on Sunday afternoon after a resounding 5-0 win at home to Chievo with Ivan Perisic bagging a hat-trick.

Luciano Spalletti’s men dominated right from the get-go as Perisic and Mauro Icardi gave Inter a commanding 2-0 lead at the break.

Perisic then scored his second shortly after the restart and moments later Milan Skriniar put Inter out of sight.
A clinical Perisic completed the rout deep into stoppages allowing Inter to celebrate a 12th win of the season.

The Nerazzurri came charging out of the blocks, and with barely one minute on the clock, were already threatening the Chievo goal as Perisic checked inside and fired off a shot which was deflected out for a corner.

From the resulting corner Andrea Ranocchia, in for the suspended Miranda, nodded inches over the bar.

It was then the turn of Antonio Candreva to come close blasting a close range effort straight at Stefano Sorrentino while moments later Davide Santon saw his long range strike whistle inches wide.

The Gialloblu managed to soak up the early pressure and on the quarter of an hour mark hit back when Valter Birsa’s whipped cross was met by the head of Riccardo Meggiorini only for Samir Handanovic to parry.

It would prove to be a brief reprieve for Chievo with Inter immediately setting about restoring their dominance on the game. Brozovic had a curling effort from a golden position put out for a corner and then moments later Ranocchia sent a glancing header narrowly wide.

The Nerazzurri’s efforts did eventually pay off and on 23 minutes the away rear-guard was finally breached: Sorrentino failed to deal with an angled effort from Davide Santon with Perisic on hand to bury the rebound with his fifth of the season.

An infallible Sorrentino then somehow saved with his foot a powerful drive from Joao Mario on an Icardi assist, but there was little he could do on the cusp of half-time as Inter doubled their lead thanks to their man of the moment Icardi.

Relatively quiet by his high standards up until that point, the No.9 raced onto a Brozovic through ball keeping his cool to slot it beyond a helpless Sorrentino. The Inter skipper’s 16th of the season was also a historic one, taking him to 94 goals overall for the Nerazzurri and joint-tenth alongside Grande Inter legend Mario Corso in the club’s all time scoring charts.

The pattern of the match continued after break with the hosts enjoying all of the possession and peppering the Chievo goal with efforts as Candreva came close with a rasping strike which flew wide of the target.

It was one way Nerazzurri traffic and on 57 minutes Inter stretched their lead when Perisic capitalised on a wayward pass from Birsa to race into the Chievo area and blast it home.

The floodgates opened up and just two minutes later the Nerazzurri added a fourth: Milan Skriniar transformed himself from centre half into centre forward and sent a diving header past Sorrentino on a Candreva cross.

There was simply no way back for Chievo and deep into stoppages Perisic sealed his hat-trick and completed the rout.

MATCH FACTS

  • Mauro Icardi has scored 16 goals in the current Serie A campaign, the last player who scored so many goals after first 15 Serie A matchdays was Luca Toni in 2005/06 when he played in Fiorentina.
  • Inter have collected 39 points in Serie A, the last team who earned so many points after first 15 Serie A matchdays were Juventus in 2013/14 (40 points in that case).
  • For the second time in their history Inter have earned 39 points after 15 Serie A matchdays (2006/07, on that occasion they won the title).
  • Ivan Perisic scored his first hat-trick in the top 5 European leagues.
  • Perisic has scored four goals against Chievo in Serie A, his most against any opponent.
  • The total Milan Skriniar’s three goals in Serie A came in the current Serie A season.
  • The 39 shots attempted by Inter in this match represent the record of shots for a team in a match of 2017/18 Serie A season.
  • Andrea Ranocchia started a Serie A match for the first time since 2 December 2016 (Napoli-Inter).
  • Davide Santon made his 100th appearance for Inter in all competitions.

 

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