Substitute Romelu Lukaku grabbed an 86th-minute purpose to earn Inter Milan a 1-0 victory over Porto in a decent first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday.
Porto midfielder Otavio was despatched off 12 minutes from time and Belgian striker Lukaku took full benefit to spice up Inter’s bid to qualify for the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier membership competitors for the primary time in 12 years.
“We played well against a very physical side. There are regrets that we failed to convert some of the first half chances, while we ran some risks after the break on the counter-attack, but the substitutions helped,” Inter supervisor Simone Inzaghi advised Amazon Prime Italia.
Lautaro Martinez might have put Inter forward after 13 minutes however despatched his header extensive from an unmarked place contained in the field.
Inter keeper Andre Onana pulled off a very good cease to maintain out an effort from Marko Grujic who was performed free contained in the field by a backheel cross from Mehdi Taremi.
Alessandro Bastoni was near giving Inter the lead in first-half stoppage time, however his downward header was expertly saved by Porto keeper Diogo Costa.
After Otavio’s dismissal for a second yellow card following a poor problem on Hakan Calhanoglu, Inter poured ahead seeking the winner and Lukaku headed Nicolo Barella’s cross in opposition to the publish earlier than knocking the rebound previous Costa.
“We should’ve been quicker moving the ball around and building out from the back. It wasn’t easy with Porto pressing so aggressively, but we still deserved to take the lead in the first half,” Inzaghi stated.
The win ended Inter’s run of 4 successive first-leg defeats in Champions League knockout-stage ties and despatched the house crowd into raptures as they chanted the identify of Lukaku who has endured an injury-plagued marketing campaign.
Porto host Inter within the second leg on March 14.
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Source: www.hindustantimes.com
