Inter Milan 1 - 0 Cagliari - Inter labour to victory

Posted Saturday, February 19, 2011 by PA

Inter Milan closed the gap on Serie A leaders AC Milan to two points but needed a large slice of luck to overcome Cagliari 1-0 at the San Siro.

An own goal from Michele Canini in the seventh minute - deflecting Houssine Kharja's shot into his own net under pressure from Andrea Ranocchia - was enough to earn the Nerazzurri all three points, but they struggled against a motivated Cagliari side.

The Sardinians did all of the running and created the best chances, but left Milan empty-handed.

Goran Pandev tested Michael Agazzi with a shot which was tipped wide in the second minute and Andrea Lazzari checked whether Julio Cesar was alert at the other end with a volley that the Inter goalkeeper tipped over.

From the corner, Daniele Conti's header forced Julio Cesar to tip the ball over the crossbar again.

Agazzi denied Pandev with his fingertips again in the fifth minute, but there was nothing he could to two minutes later when the home side went ahead controversially.

Samuel Eto'o took a quick free-kick while the Cagliari defenders were still organising themselves to build a wall and, after a series of rebounds, the ball fell to Kharja.

Both Ranocchia and Thiago Motta were in offside positions as they jostled to meet Kharja's shot, which actually took a deflection off Canini's thigh to divert into the top corner of the goal.

The linesman's flag stayed down, even though both Inter players were interfering with play and Andrea Cossu was shown the yellow card as he led Cagliari's vociferous protests.

The Sardinians did not lose heart, though, and continued to take the game to their hosts, who seemed tired.

Perhaps Leonardo's men were conserving energy for their midweek Champions League tie with Bayern Munich, but they certainly suffered against Roberto Donadoni's men.

In the 70th minute, Conti's shot deflected off Thiago Motta, wrong-footing Julio Cesar but, fortunately for the Inter goalkeeper, curling just wide of his right-hand post.

A great spell of pressure from Cagliari culminated in a shot from Lazzari which was tipped wide by Julio Cesar five minutes later as the visitors threatened a deserved equaliser.

Leonardo reorganised his team, leaving just Giampaolo Pazzini on his own up front in the final stages as Inter closed out the game.