Tommaso Baldanzi, a 19-year-old youth squad player, gave Empoli the win with the first ball he touched.
The ‘Nerazzurri’ could not celebrate the Super Cup with a win and remain 13 points behind Napoli after losing to Empoli for the first time 19 years later
The captain Skriniar, sent off in the first half, may have lived his last game in ‘calcio’ if he is transferred to PSG in the winter market
Inter, the brand new Italian super champion, was unable to celebrate the title won last Wednesday in Riyadh with a win and saw the ‘scudetto’ slip away a little more when they were surprised at the San Siro by Empoli (0-1). A defeat that greatly compromises the options of Simone Inzaghi’s team since the leader Napoli leads him by 13 points at the end of the first round of Serie A.
The match was not easy from the start for Inter with the dangerous arrivals of Empoli, led in attack by Francesco Caputo, but it was complicated by the expulsion of Milan Skriniar in the 39th minute.
Skriniar leaves Inter with ten
The Slovak center-back saw the second yellow card for kicking Caputo in the face in a fight for the ball by lifting his leg excessively. It would be a sad farewell for the ‘Nerazzurri’ captain in what could be the last match for ‘Calcio’ if his departure takes place in this winter transfer window.
Until then, Inter’s main resource had been wing-back Federico Dimarco, who showed his great form by taking advantage of several long balls to wreak havoc down the left flank. A great left-footed volley from goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was the best home occasion in the first half.
Baldanzi enters and sentences
At the restart, Empoli applied themselves to close spaces for Dimarco and took advantage of their numerical superiority to open the scoring. It was in a perfect transition from his field that Tomasso Baldanzi culminated after controlling a pass from Nedim Bajrami and putting a low shot that slipped under a misguided André Onana (65′).
It was the first ball touched by the promising 19-year-old youngster to emerge from the Tuscan club’s academy, seconds after Paolo Zanetti gave him a start.
Lautaro remains unmarked
Simone Inzaghi brought on Edin Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku and, with all their artillery on the field, Inter turned upside down in the final minutes. The center-back Stefan de Vrij headed in a corner to the crosshead (78′) but this time not even Lautaro Martínez, who had scored in the last four games, avoided disaster.
Empoli, located in the middle of the table, had only beaten Inter once in their entire history. It was in January 2004, also at the San Siro, and also 0-1. History repeated itself 19 years later.
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