Brozovic rescues Inter
CROATIA’S Marcelo Brozovic grabbed a late winner as Inter Milan followed their Champions League heroics against Tottenham with a 1-0 Serie A win at Sampdoria yesterday as tensions ran high during a game in which three goals were disallowed.
World Cup runner-up Brozovic scored four minutes into injury time in Genoa after VAR had denied Inter two goals and Sampdoria one during the match .
Inter Milan coach Luciano Spalletti was also banished from the touchline by officials for his wild celebration of the winning goal.
“I turned towards the camera to shout ‘goal’ and the fourth official told me I had done it with too much force,” Spalletti told streaming service DAZN.
“It was too important a goal, like a liberation, and they interpreted it as something with too much emotional reaction,” added Spalletti. “I didn’t do anything wrong.” The three points give Inter just their second win of the Serie A season and move Spalletti’s side up to seventh – equal on seven points with Sampdoria – after five games.
Earlier Fiorentina moved second with a 3-0 win in Tuscany, spoiling SPAL’s promising start to the campaign.
Fiorentina are level with Sassuolo, who beat 10-man Empoli 3-1 on Friday, on ten points after five games, but ahead on goal difference.
Former Arsenal winger Gervinho scored a stunning goal as Parma beat Cagliari 2-0 to secure back-to-back wins after they shocked Inter Milan at the San Siro last weekend.
Ivory Coast international Gervinho scored the second goal two minutes after the break, picking up the ball just outside his own penalty area, and making a spectacular 50-metre dash, zigzagging past three Cagliari defenders and unleashing a shot that bounced off the post and into the net for his second Serie A goal this season.
The 31-year-old former Roma and Arsenal player returned to Serie A last month after leaving the Italian capital for Chinese club Hebei China Fortune in January 2016.
“I don’t know if it’s my best goal, as I’ve scored many in my time,” said Gervinho. – AFP