Inter left it late again to secure a victory and remain joint leaders, with an own goal and deflected Carlos Augusto header to sink Venezia.
The Nerazzurri knew only three points would let them keep top spot alongside Lazio and already had a scare at the weekend with two goals in added time to beat Fiorentina 2-1. Lautaro Martinez, Benjamin Pavard, Curtis Jones, John Stones and Luis Henrique were still out of action, but Ivan Provedel started his second consecutive match. Venezia won Davide Nicola’s debut against Napoli, but went back to old habits with a 1-0 loss at Genoa. Andrea Adorante, Thierry Correia, Marin Sverko and Bartol Franjic were long-term absentees.
This was an intriguing battle of the Stankovic brothers, Filip in goal for Venezia and Aleksandar getting his first Inter start in midfield, as both came through the Nerazzurri academy, following the footsteps of father Dejan.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Federico Dimarco’s curler was off target and Petar Sucic had penalty appeals rejected when he went down under minor contact with Thorir Helgason as he tried to change direction.
Lion Lauberbach had a similar coming together with Yann Bisseck and again the referee and VAR were not interested.
Ivan Provedel on his second consecutive start scrambled across for a great one-handed save on the Akor Adams strike, then moments later managed to change direction to parry the deflected Kike Perez free kick with Lauberbach quickest to react on the rebound. However, Venezia celebrations were short-lived, as VAR showed Lauberbach was offside.
It was wide open, as just after Ange-Yoan Bonny failed to meet the Marcus Thuram pull-back, Venezia had two big chances on the counter-attack. First Provedel off balance managed to deflect a Lauberbach finish onto the crossbar from the Helgason cross, then as the move continued the striker’s header was just off target.
Andy Diouf got down the right to test Filip Stankovic with a low cross-shot, but Cristian Chivu was evidently unsatisfied, as he made a triple change at half-time.
Thuram tested Filip Stankovic from distance, but Venezia really should’ve gone in front on the hour mark when Gianluca Busio somehow ballooned over from close range on a roll across from the right.
The Lagunari also had the ball in the net on 71 minutes, but again the offside flag went up, this time for Adams who had dribbled around Provedel on the John Yeboah through ball.
Thuram also prodded inches wide on a Francesco Pio Esposito assist, then turned a header just past the far top corner on the Carlos Augusto cross.
Instead, Inter broke through when Carlos Augusto tackled Simon Sohm to spark the counter-attack, Thuram pulled back from the by-line and Matias Moreno attempted to clear at the near post, accidentally putting it into his own net. Venezia complaints of a potential foul in the build-up were rejected.
Moments later, the Nerazzurri doubled their lead with another deflection, as the Carlos Augusto glancing header from a Hakan Calhanoglu corner hit Redouane Halhal on the chest to ricochet in.
Venezia 0-2 Inter
Moreno og 80 (I), Halhal og 82 (I)
Player statistic
| 28′ | Alessandro Bastoni |
| 56′ |  |
Nicolò Barella | ||
| 79′ | Matías Moreno | |||
| 82′ |  |
Redouane Halhal |
Match statistic
VEN
INT
Starting lineups
Substitutes
