Inter got back to winning ways in Serie A as they beat Cremonese 3-1 at the Giuseppe Meazza on Tuesday night.
The goals came from Joaquin Correa and Nicolo Barella in the first half before Lautaro Martinez made it 3-0 in the second. There was a late David Okereke strike as a consolation for Cremonese.
It took Inter only 11 minutes to get the lead and settle any nerves against Cremonese. Nicolo Barella made an impressive run with the ball across half of the pitch and laid it inside for Edin Dzeko to shoot first time.
His shot was saved by Andrei Radu but the ball fell kindly for Correa who slotted it in and gave the Nerazzurri the lead.
Nicolo Barella shows his class for Inter
Inter continued to be well on top and they doubled their lead with a truly superb goal. A swift break ended with Hakan Calhanoglu chipping the ball to the edge of the box where Barella was waiting to volley it into the far corner with just over five minutes of the half to go.
Cremonese rally but Lautaro Martinez strikes
Cremonese started the second half with a lot more purpose and whilst Inter still of course posed a threat, it was the Grigiorossi who looked the most likely to get the next goal.
What had seemed like an early-half rally from Cremonese soon just became their second-half performance as they saw significantly more of the ball and reached a point where they could feel disappointed not to have got a goal back.
The danger was always there that Inter could snatch a clincher on the break and that is exactly what happened.
Martinez, who had not long come on for Correa, was played through by Barella and he shrugged off the challenge from Charles Pickel superbly and calmly placed his shot low past Radu.
The Nerazzurri then regained full control of proceedings and began resting multiple key players for Saturday’s Derby della Madonnina.
There was still time for a consolation strike from Okereke to make it 3-1 as he picked up the ball on the edge of the box and placed a shot into the top corner as Samir Handanovic remained rooted to the spot.