Inter Milan Thrash Red Star Belgrade 4-0 to Secure First Champions League Victory
Inter Milan showed off their dominance by defeating Red Star Belgrade 4-0 as the Champions League 2024–25 season got underway in the San Siro on Tuesday.
With this all-encompassing victory, Inter is well-positioned to pursue European success.
Inter Milan defeated Red Star Belgrade 4-0 at the San Siro on Tuesday to win their first game in the redesigned Champions League this season. In the 11th minute, Hakan Calhanoglu scored a beautiful free-kick in the midst of a downpour in northern Italy, and on the hour, Marko Arnautovic scored his first goal of the season. In the 71st minute, Iran attacker Mehdi Taremi clinched a comfortable victory at home after captain Lautaro Martinez won the penalty kick.
With Calhanoglu already substituted, Martinez was set to take the penalty kick, which gave Taremi the opportunity to score his first goal for Inter past Israel international goalie Omri Glazer.
“I’m happy to play well and score tonight. Many thanks to my guys. It was fantastic,” Taremi told Sky, indicating that he anticipated his new club making a significant breakthrough.
“As a major club, we want to make it to the championship game, and Inter needs to aim for victory in every game. We’ll approach things cautiously.”
With their victory on Tuesday, the Italian champions increased their lead to four points and moved up into the top eight of the elite club competition’s new league phase, from which teams advance directly to the round of 16, which is played on Wednesday.
Although it’s too soon to tell if Inter will miss out on the playoffs the next season, Simone Inzaghi’s team was too strong for Red Star despite making seven changes from the squad that defeated Udinese over the weekend.
Furthermore, Inter had demonstrated their ability to compete with the elite in their goalless draw against Manchester City two weeks ago.
“It’s a win that we needed after playing well in Manchester, but we need to keep moving in this direction,” Inzaghi stated.
After losing their opening two games, Red Star is currently in 32nd place, and coach Vladan Milojevic bemoaned his team’s careless play.
“We gave away four goals, I said after the Benfica game (lost 2-1) that we can’t concede those sorts of goals… when you make these kinds of errors you can’t do much else,” he stated to reporters.
Ultras Arrests
The game took place in the midst of widespread arrests of prominent members of AC Milan’s and Inter’s extreme ultrafan groups for a range of offenses linked to illicit match-related profit-making.
On Monday, police made 19 arrests for “criminal conspiracy aggravated by mafia methods, extortion, assault and other serious crimes,” nearly all of them were ultras.
The alleged offenses include various operations that take place in and around the San Siro stadium on game days, such as ticket touting, parking lot management, concession stand sales, and accepting payments from those who enter the stadium without tickets.
The arrests on Monday followed a protracted probe into the ultras of both teams as well as the terrible murder of Antonio Bellocco, a powerful ‘Ndrangheta clan scion, by fellow Inter ultra Andrea Beretta last month.
On Monday, detectives from the anti-mafia and finance police departments announced that Milan and Inter were not under investigation and that the couple had been “damaged” by the situation.
The mood in the Curva Nord section of San Siro, where Inter’s fiercest supporters stood and cheered their team from the opening minute, was unaffected by the arrests or Milan’s excessively rainy weather.
As Inter dominated play, Calhanoglu’s stunning free kick put the hosts ahead, sending the entire stadium into a frenzy of activity.
Arnautovic and Denzel Dumfries scored goals, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan squandered two excellent opportunities to extend Inter’s well-earned lead.
In the 58th minute, Taremi snatched the ball from former AC Milan midfielder Rade Krunic, and moments later, Arnautovic curled in Inter’s second goal. Mkhitaryan narrowly missed getting a proper foot on Piotr Zielinski’s beautiful pass.
After another excellent assist from Taremi—who received a present from his Argentine strike partner in appreciation for his excellent effort up front—who helped Inter achieve a fantastic win, Red Star collapsed and Martinez scored his third goal of the year.
