Serie A | Inter 3-1 Bologna: Super Nerazzurri secure top spot

Inter took revenge on Bologna after the Supercoppa, as Piotr Zielinski, Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram finally wore down Federico Ravaglia.

These teams met on December 19 in the Supercoppa Italiana semi-final, which ended 1-1 with Bologna winning a penalty shoot-out, but a 1-0 defeat at the Stadio Dall’Ara was also decisive in last season’s Scudetto race. Denzel Dumfries, Ange-Yoan Bonny and Matteo Darmian were still out of action, while the visitors were missing Lukasz Skorupski and Federico Bernardeschi after just two points from the last four Serie A rounds.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Lautaro Martinez accidentally had his fingers trodden on by Torbjorn Heggem in the opening minutes, but it didn’t stop him forcing a desperate save out of Federico Ravaglia when Marcus Thuram’s attempt was deflected into his path from 12 yards.

The captain also tried to find Thuram with a through ball, but the finish was also parried by Ravaglia one-on-one.

Inter should’ve taken the lead on 20 minutes when Lautaro Martinez pounced on a Jhon Lucumi error, but his roll across for Thuram was too weak and allowed Heggem to get back for the decisive block on a tap-in.

Ravaglia performed a series of stunning saves, first on Hakan Calhanoglu’s deflected effort that looped up and had to be fingertipped out of the top corner, then preventing the Alessandro Bastoni header to cross the line completely on the resulting corner.

Bologna responded, the Jens Odgaard header inches wide of the near post, while Nicolò Barella hesitated on a Thuram assist and allowed Charalampos Lykogiannis to rob him.

The deadlock was broken when Lautaro Martinez met the cheeky Thuram back-heel flick, rolled it across and Zielinski hit a first-time scorcher with his left foot from the edge of the area to give Ravaglia no chance.

The former Napoli man smashes home from the edge of the area to give Inter a 1-0 lead!

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The Bologna goalkeeper kept the scoreline down with another big save on Lautaro Martinez from close range after the give and go with Barella.

Vincenzo Italiano made two changes at half-time, and Santiago Castro fired wide when Inter gave it away cheaply, but Ravaglia immediately made another huge save, parrying Federico Dimarco’s angled drive with his boot at the near post.

However, Inter scored on the resulting corner, Lautaro Martinez’s bullet header meeting the Calhanoglu set piece from six yards. It means Lautaro Martinez now has six goals in his last five Serie A appearances.

A bullet header from Lautaro Martinez doubles Inter’s lead to put them top of Serie A 💥

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Manuel Akanji threatened a third moments later, prodding wide of the near post from close range on a free kick, then Lautaro Martinez somehow fired onto the crossbar from six yards after Thuram’s assist from the right took a heavy bobble off the turf.

Ravaglia continued his heroics with another big save one-on-one with Lautaro Martinez, aided also by the Heggem clearance as the ball bounced towards the empty net.

Inter did get a third in curious circumstances, as Dimarco’s corner kick hit Thuram on the chest and ricocheted in from point-blank range at the near post.

Marcus Thuram makes it 3-0 to Inter, but he didn’t know much about it 😅

Another dangerous corner whipped in and it hits Thuram on the line almost to pretty much secure their 3 points.

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Dimarco’s free kick whistled just wide, but Bologna got one back when Castro came sliding in to meet the Lykogiannis set play from six yards, Yann Sommer unable to keep it out.

Zielinski 39 (I), Lautaro Martinez 48 (I), Thuram 74 (I), Castro 83 (B)