After a nail-biting finish to the previous season and leading the team to a back-to-back Champion’s League qualification, Luciano Spaletti earned a new three-year contract with Inter ahead of the 2018-19 Serie A season.
With aspirations to further progress to the knockout stage of the competition, the team strengthened the squad in the summer transfer window by bringing in the likes of Kwaduo Asamoah, Stefan De Vrij, Lautaro Martinez, Radja Nainggolan, Matteo Politano, Sime Vrsaljko, and Keita Balde.
Despite struggling out the gates when the Nerazzurri won 4 points through a possible 12, Spaletti’s side went on a six-game winning streak going into the round eleven matches at San Siro against Genoa.
On the other hand, following a twelfth place, Genoa started the new season under Davide Ballardini who had taken over mid-way through the previous season from Ivan Juric.
Despite the team winning four out of the first seven matches, the club parted ways with Davide Ballardini and brought back Ivan Juric.
Coming into round eleven match at San Siro, Genoa were yet to win since the return of Ivan Juric and were desperate to turn their season around by getting points on the board.
As the game got underway, Spaletti had Inter lined up in a traditional 4-3-3 formation with Handanovic in goal followed by a defensive back four of D’ambrossio, Skriniar, De Vrij, and Dalbert.
The midfield trio was Joao Mario, Brozovic, and Gagliardini with the attacking trident of Perisic, Lautaro Martinez, and Politano.
On the flip side, Davide Ballardini had Genoa lined up in a 3-4-1-2 formation with on-loan Inter goal-keeper Ionut Radu along with a center-back trio of Biraschi, Romero, and Gunter.
In the middle of the field were Bessa, Lazovic, Sandro, Romulo and Pereira. Attack made up of Kuoame and Pandev.
Inter retained the majority of the possession earlier on, not giving the ball away to Genoa easily and keeping the pressure up.
Politano consistently cut inside from the right-wing position to take a shot on target or cross the ball to the back post for a late run from either Lautaro or Perisic.
Genoa started the game completely pinned back in their own half and early sustained pressure from Inter led to a goal from Roberto Gagliardini from point-blank range after he received a low cross from Perisic inside the penalty box.
Before the visitors had the opportunity to go for the tying goal, Matteo Politano intercepted a backward pass towards the centerbacks and comfortably tucked it away in the bottom right corner, giving Inter a comfortable 2-0 lead.
Both teams went into the half-time with that scoreline. Genoa was unable to create any notable scoring opportunities throughout the first half.
Desperately needing to make some changes, Ballardini took off Goran Pandev and brought on Piatek and also took off Sandro to bring on Miguel Veloso in the mid-field.
However, before long, Inter added a decisive third goal from Gagliardini around the forty-nine-minute mark. With the home side comfortably on top with a decisive three-goal margin, the visitors were no match for dominating Nerazzurri performance at San Siro, only managing to get two shots on target all game long.
Before the end of the match, Inter added two more goals in injury time from Joao Mario and Radja Nainggolan to make the final scoreline of 5-0, taking their winning streak to seven games.
Roberto Gagliardini continued the fantastic track record of strong performances against Genoa sides by securing the man-of-the-match award and walking away with a brace.
