Inter hold on for priceless victory away at Juventus

Defending Serie A champions defeated arch-rivals in Turin

Posted Monday, April 04, 2022 by Marca.com

It was an evening where Inter needed to keep pressure on both AC Milan and Napoli in the hunt for the Serie A title, whilst Juventus could catapult themselves unexpectedly back into the title race with a victory, however it proved to be a night of glory for the Nerazzurri, as they secured a 1-0 win at the Juventus Stadium.

Inter almost took the first chance of the match through Milan Skriniar, who fought for just enough space inside the Juventus penalty area, connecting with a corner and heading towards Wojciech Szczesny, who made a fantastic diving stop.

Juventus then responded with a chance of their own in a chaotic start to the evening, as the Italian defender fired a rebound from close range directly into the crossbar, with the ball then bouncing to safety.

Inter thought they should have had a penalty in the 44th minute of play when Denzel Dumfries went down under a challenge, yet official waved play on.

A break in play allowed Massimiliano Irrati to communicate with his VAR team, who recommended that the referee go and check the footage of Dumfries' penalty claim.

A decision was made after much deliberation, and the visitors were awarded a spot-kick right on the cusp of half time, with Alvaro Morata then being shown a yellow card for his complaints.

Further chaos would follow, with Hakan Calhanoglu's spot-kick being saved by the outstretched Szczesny, although in the subsequent melee the ball ended up in the back of the net, although Irrati blew for a foul against Inter.

A scuffle between Skriniar and Juan Cuadrado began as nobody really knew what was happening, yet the referee determined that the original spot-kick was to be retaken after an infringement was spotted.

Calhanoglu would make no mistake with the retake, sliding his penalty into the bottom left corner, leaving the Polish shot-stopper with no chance to repeat his previous heroics.

Juventus were livid going into the break, feeling aggrieved by the decision to award a penalty and then allow it to be retaken, and their anger increased yet further when they were denied a spot-kick of their own in the 55th minute.

Irrati reviewed the footage using VAR and kept to his decision that there was no infringement and no penalty.

Samir Handanovic provided an excellent save from Denis Zakaria inside the penalty area as Juventus piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser, but one never came.

Inter held on into injury time when the Bianconeri had two further shouts for penalties turned down by the official.

Dusan Vlahovic was brought down in the area first but the appeals were waved away, whilst with the last kick of the game, Matthijs de Ligt burst into the penalty box and went over rather theatrically, with no penalty the decision for the second time in as many minutes.