Late own goal rescues win for Inter Milan against Monza as it steers clear atop Serie A 2024-25
Late own goal rescues win for Inter Milan against Monza as it steers clear atop Serie A 2024-25
Inter Milan was given a real scare by bottom club Monza before coming back to earn a 3-2 win at the San Siro on Saturday, where an own goal allowed the hosts to extend their lead at the top of the Serie A standings.
Monza shocked the home crowd by taking a 2-0 lead in the first half, with Samuele Birindelli netting in the 32nd minute and Keita Balde scoring with a stunning strike one minute from the break.
The hosts pulled one back before the interval from a Marko Arnautovic header in added time, Hakan Calhanoglu levelled in the 64th minute and Monza’s Giorgos Kyriakopoulos put the ball into his own net 13 minutes from time.
Inter moved to 61 points, four ahead of Napoli which hosts Fiorentina on Sunday, while Monza remained rooted to the bottom of the table on 14 points, 10 from safety.
“We can’t underestimate teams, the opponents are good. In the end we dominated, we tried everything and we are happy with the victory,” Calhanoglu told Sky.
“The coach’s mentality is right, we’ll try to win the treble. It’s a very long season, let’s take it step by step.”
Calhanoglu also praised Arnautovic, who scored just his second league goal of the season on what was his first Serie A start of the campaign.
“He’s very important for the locker room, in difficult moments he lifts everyone up with the right mentality.”
Arnautovic has already experienced winning the treble with Inter, in 2010, but back then the on-loan striker saw even less of the action, making three brief substitute appearances across all competitions.
“I was a fan when Inter won the first treble. I was with them, it’s a pride for me but I don’t feel it is mine because maybe I played two or three games,” Arnautovic said.
“Now I’m here, we try to win everything, knowing that it’s not easy.
“This victory weighs heavily because in the first 25 minutes we were 2-0 down, then we did our job, as did our fans. We are very happy but it is not over because the championship is still very long.”..”
Published on Mar 09, 2025
