Inter stretched their Serie A winning
run to five matches as they showed
their clinical side to beat Bologna 3-1
and move above Napoli and Lazio into
second in the standings.
Goals from Andrea Ranocchia and
Esteban Cambiasso sandwiched Diego
Milito's effort as the Argentine marked
his 100th league appearance for the
San Siro outfit with his fourth goal of
the campaign.
Nicolo Cherubin had given Bologna
hope with his header midway through
the second half but the home side
were ultimately punished for being so
wasteful in front of goal during an
entertaining encounter.
The Rossoblu almost opened the
scoring inside two minutes as
Alessandro Diamanti's low free-kick
from all of 30 yards went just the
wrong side of Samir Handanovic's left-
hand post.
Stefano Pioli's team continued to have
the better of the opening stages, and
Alberto Gilardino should have done
better with a close-range volley after
Tiberio Guarante's reverse pass, but
the Italy international sliced his effort
wide.
Diamanti looked dangerous whenever
he got on the ball, and he threatened
the Inter goal again but his powerful
shot from the edge of the box flashed
wide.
The Rossoblu were employing a shoot
on sight policy, and Guarente was the
next man to try his luck from range,
but his powerful drive was too high to
trouble Handanovic.
Despite being on the back foot for the
opening 20 minutes, Inter should
have gone in front when Ranocchia
found himself in space around eight
yards from goal from a corner, but
the defender could only direct his
header wide.
Bologna failed to learn their lesson
five minutes later as Ranocchia got
above his marker at the back post
from Cambiasso's free kick, and the
24-year-old defender made no
mistake second time round as he
headed across goal into the bottom
corner, leaving Federico Agliardi with
no chance.
Milito went close to doubling the
Nerazzurri's lead soon after when his
powerful effort was turned away by
Agliardi, but that proved to be the
final chance of note of the opening 45
minutes as both sides struggled to
find the killer pass in the final third.
Bologna were again quicker out the
traps after the break, and they almost
drew level after just 30 seconds of the
second period as Gilardino's deft back
heel found Manolo Gabbiadini on the
edge of the box, but his low shot
skidded wide.
Despite having to do a lot of
defending, Inter looked dangerous on
the break, and they doubled their lead
after a sweeping move ended in
Rodrigo Palacio beating two home
defenders before squaring for Milito
to slot into an empty net.
Many teams would have folded after
falling two goals behind, but the hosts
looked to get back into the match and
Gilardino was unlucky to see his
spectacular volley turned round the
post by a diving Handanovic.
The Serie A strugglers did eventually
get their goal from the resulting
corner as Cherubin beat the Inter
goalkeeper to the ball and headed in
from Diamanti's searching cross.
The fightback lasted all of five minutes,
though, as Miltio and Palacio again
combined to find Cambiasso free
inside the box and the Argentine
made no mistake as he chipped
Agliardi to restore the two-goal
advantage for Andrea Stramaccioni's
team.
The flurry of goals had sprung the
game into life and Bologna almost hit
back immediately as Diamanti's cross
was palmed away from under his own
crossbar by Handanovic.
With time running down, the home
side continued to search for a way
back into the match and Diamanti
again demostrated his ability from a
dead ball as his free kick was well
caught by Handanovic.
The 2010 Champions League winners
almost added a fourth late on as Yuto
Nagamoto forced Agliardi into a smart
save whilst Cambiasso put the
rebound over the bar. As it was,
though, they had already done
enough to rack up another victory,
which keeps the pressure on leaders
Juventus.
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