Late drama unfolded at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza as Inter Milan extended their unbeaten run to 13 Serie A games thanks to a late strike by Davide Frattesi. Ten-men Hellas Verona succumbed to a 25th winless head-to-head encounters with the tense loss, having last won against the Nerazzurri back in 1992.Verona struggled to register a single shot on target in their defeat to rock-bottom Salernitana last time out, but it wasn’t long before Tomáš Suslov forced Yann Sommer into a save from a tight angle. However, things quickly turned sour for the visitors. Emerging fresh from his two-match hiatus due to injury, Lautaro Martínez returned with a bang, calmly slotting home his fifth head-to-head goal in four outings with a low drive from close range after Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s impressive assist.
Inter’s hopes of a fifth straight clean sheet victory at San Siro were then endangered when Milan Djuric headed an accurate cross into the middle of the goal, only to find Sommer waiting to save it on the goal line. But with just 15 goals scored all season, only above Empoli’s 10, Verona rarely troubled the Nerazzurri fortification, as the hosts took a comfortable lead going into the interval.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Simone Inzaghi’s outfit thought they had doubled their lead immediately after the restart, but Martínez was ruled offside in the build-up play, much to the joy of the few hundred Verona faithful. And although the Gialloblu struggled to make an impact for much of the half, they emerged with the goods against the run of play with 15 minutes left. A surprise awaited Inter, who had previously not conceded a single goal past the 75th minute mark this season, as substitute Thomas Henry tapped in the equaliser with his first touch of the game following Ondrej Duda’s pinpoint cross from the right flank.
With the roaring home crowd’s backing, the Nerazzurri came up with the goods in the dying minutes thanks to Frattesi’s opportunistic tap-in following a rebound, after which Darko Lazović received his marching orders. Inzaghi’s men, however, were in for yet another surprise, when Verona were awarded a penalty in stoppage time, only for Henry to strike his spot-kick off the post, following which the rebound was squandered into thin air. The result lifts Inter five points above Derby d’Italia rivals Juventus, while Verona will rue their lapses at the death, as they remain rooted to the bottom of the table.
SERIE A – MATCHDAY 19FridayBologna – Genoa 1-1 (0-1)/De Silvestri 90+5 – Gudmindsson 20/SaturdayInter Milan – Verona 2-1 (1-0)/Lautaro 13, Frattesi 90+4 – Henry 74/17:00: (2.70) Frosinone (3.30) Monza (2.85)20:00: (2.30) Lecce (3.35) Cagliari (3.40)22:45: (3.15) Sassuolo (3.45) Fiorentina (2.25)Sunday14:30: (5.60) Empoli (3.70) Milan (1.65)17:00: (3.40) Udinese (3.35) Lazio (2.30)17:00: (2.95) Torino (3.30) Napoli (2.60)20:00: (8.00) Salernitana (4.40) Juventus (1.42)22:45: (2.50) Roma (3.35) Atalanta (3.05)***odds are subject to change***