Inter Milan player ratings vs Napoli: Lukaku delivers historic win for Inter
By John Vaccaro
Inter Milan hadn’t won a match in Napoli since the 1996-97 season, but they finally managed to change that on Monday.
It didn’t take them long to get started in this match. Only 14 minutes in, an errant pass from Napoli and a slip from one of their players allowed Romelu Lukaku to take possession of the ball in his own half. He took advantage of the miscue, taking the ball into Napoli’s penalty area himself and beating Alex Meret at the near post. That was just the start of an eventful first half.
19 minutes later, Marcelo Brozovic made Lukaku a pass that set him up for a second. Lukaku blasted a shot straight at Alex Meret, which Meret dropped between his legs to give Inter Milan an early 2 goal lead. However, Napoli would answer before the half.
After clearing a ball, the Inter defense switched off, leaving a ton of space for a pass to Jose Callejon on the left wing. He then played a cross in to Arkadiusz Milik, who easily scored to cut into Inter’s lead and send the match to halftime at 2-1.
The second half wasn’t nearly as eventful, with Lautaro Martinez scoring the only goal of the half. Napoli failed to clear a cross and Martinez pounced on the loose ball, easily beating Meret and giving Inter Milan the 3-1 win to end 23 years of suffering in Napoli.
GK: Samir Handanovic 7.5/10
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Samir Handanovic was awesome in this match. He has long been in the conversation as one of Serie A’s best keepers and he showed why again in this match. He made 6 saves in the match, including a couple of really impressive ones. The goal he allowed wasn’t really his fault at all as the defense just completely switched off for a second. He wasn’t able to extend his lead atop Serie A’s clean sheet list, but this was still a very good match for Handanovic.