Inter midfielder Nicolo Barella does not quite have the same reputation as a dead ball specialist that some of his teammates including Hakan Calhanoglu and Federico Dimarco do.

However, it was the 25-year-old who scored the Nerazzurri’s first goal in Serie A from a direct free kick in more than a year with his opener against Udinese in the Nerazzurri’s 3-1 defeat yesterday afternoon, as was highlighted by football statistics account Opta in a tweet.

Their tweet reads, “371 – Inter have scored their first direct free-kick goal in #SerieA since 12th September 2021 (Dimarco vs Sampdoria), more than one year ago (371 days). Trajectory.”