Serie A | Inter 3-0 Fiorentina: Sucic and Hakan skill on show

It took two moments of individual brilliance from Hakan Calhanoglu and Petar Sucic for Inter to finally break Fiorentina after David De Gea heroics.

The Nerazzurri were still feeling the tension of their controversial 3-1 defeat to Napoli, also as Henrikh Mkhitaryan was ruled out for a month by an injury sustained in that match, which ended their run of seven straight victories in all competition. Marcus Thuram and Matteo Darmian were also still out, so Petar Sucic and Francesco Pio Esposito stepped in. The Viola didn’t have a single Serie A win this season, but fought back from 2-0 down to grab a point against Bologna at the weekend, with Tariq Lamptey and Christian Kouame long-term absentees.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

The hosts came out fighting, Rolando Mandragora throwing himself in the path of a Sucic strike.

Alessandro Bastoni intercepted a pass out from the back and surged into the penalty area, but David De Gea stood his ground to deny the Inter defender one-on-one.

The Fiorentina goalkeeper made an extraordinary reaction save using his foot when Federico Dimarco was allowed to meet the Bastoni cross totally unmarked from 12 yards through the centre.

After the restart, Denzel Dumfries shrugged off Mattia Viti only to see his shot blocked by a desperate Robin Gosens lunge. As the move continued, Fiorentina risked an own goal with a double ricochet, but it fell kindly for De Gea.

Dimarco also saw his angled drive flash inches wide with a deflection after Pablo Mari tackled Lautaro Martinez in the penalty area.

On the resulting corner, Pietro Comuzzo and Pio Esposito got into a tangle with the Fiorentina defender’s arm across his neck, but Inter penalty appeals were rejected by VAR.

The Nerazzurri were pouring forward and running into the De Gea brick wall, as the veteran goalkeeper used his body to parry the Dumfries volley at the back post, then on the corner flew to fingertip the Yann Bisseck strike out from under the bar.

Inter finally found a way through when Calhanoglu gathered outside the area, took a touch to cut inside Jacopo Fazzini, and drilled into the far bottom corner with the right boot.

Sucic doubled their lead with a sensational bit of skill, as he combined with Lautaro Martinez to then dribble into the area, slalom between four defenders, and sweep in with the inside of the right boot.

Bisseck tracked back for a decisive sliding tackle on the Kean counter-attack, but things went from bad to worse for Fiorentina, who lost Robin Gosens to a muscular problem.

Another Kean counter saw him scuff the weak finish into the arms of Sommer, but Mattia Viti lunged into a mistimed tackle on Ange-Yoan Bonny and was already on a yellow card, so Fiorentina went down to 10 men and Calhanoglu converted the penalty.

Calhanoglu 66, pen 88 (I), Sucic 71 (I)

Sent off: Viti 86 (F)