Inter won the Milan derby on Sunday thanks to a complete team effort, at least according to Italian football journalist Luigi Garlando.
Antonio Conte’s side ran out 3-0 winners over their city rivals AC Milan at San Siro with Lautaro Martinez scoring a double and Romelu Lukaku rounding off the scoring.
The result means Inter are now four points clear at the top of the Serie A table, with 15 games left to play.
“The derby was won by Inter, who were a real team,” Garlando outlined in his latest column, which appeared in Monday’s print edition of Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.
“The second goal shows this well.
“The ball started with Samir Handanovic to Achraf Hakimi to Christian Eriksen, who played it to Ivan Perisic who passed it on to Lautaro Martinez who put it into the goal.
“Inter no longer have full-backs on the wing but attacking talents in Hakimi and Perisic.
“They do not just have midfielders who make forward runs but one who helps build play like Eriksen.
“Lukaku keeps hurting opponents in open space, but now there’s an alternative attacking option: the organised build-up play which gives the strikers more service.”
Garlando then analysed whether Inter could have had a turning point sooner than their recent 3-1 triumph at home to Lazio, but he was quick to praise the work done by coach Antonio Conte nonetheless.
“We will call the Lazio match the turning point, but could Conte have done it earlier?
“Nobody knows the time of the harvest better than the owner of the garden.
“Conte had to work to make his system sustainable and now he has a brand new team in his hands.”
Garlando proceeded to highlight some impressive stats from Inter’s season and he also sang the praises of Inter club captain Handanovic.
“Inter have scored 57 goals in 23 league games, they have only done better than this in the 1949-50 and 1950-51 seasons,” he noted.
“The Nerazzurri have the top scorer in the league, the best goal-scoring partnership and a goalkeeper, who, despite a difficult season, has returned to pulling off miracles.”
“Handanovic pulled off three miracles in two minutes at the beginning of the second half and with Inter 1-0 up at that point, it was a key moment.
“The defence has also recorded three clean sheets in a row away from home, something that has not happened since October 2012.”
Conte’s side will play their next league game on Sunday when they welcome in-form Genoa to San Siro.