Cagliarivs
InternazionaleCagliari threw everything at Internazionale on Sunday at the Unipol Domus and came away with nothing to show for it. Not a single shot on target across 90 minutes, despite 10 attempts and eight corners. Inter, cool and controlled, needed one goal — Hakan Çalhanoglu's ninth-minute finish off a Nicolò Barella assist — and that was that.
Our pre-match read made Internazionale the clear favorite at 67%, and the match played out exactly as forecast.
The Goal That Decided It
Barella found Çalhanoglu early, and the Turkish midfielder did the rest. Nine minutes gone, one-nil, and Inter essentially spent the next 80 minutes managing the game. With 64.8% possession and 681 passes completed at 90% accuracy, they had the tools to do exactly that.
Manuel Akanji picked up a yellow card in the 14th minute — a minor concern for Inter, though it didn't change the rhythm of the match. Cagliari, forced to chase the game with just 35.2% of the ball, struggled to manufacture anything meaningful going forward.
Cagliari's Futile Siege
The home side's stat line tells a painful story. Ten shots, zero on target. Eight corners that went nowhere. Four offsides. Their goalkeeper made five saves — which means Inter, for all their dominance, couldn't finish the thing off either, but Cagliari's own attacking end was completely sterile.
Qué frustración para los locales. You can run up the corner count, you can foul and press and scramble, but if none of your 10 attempts trouble the keeper, it's a long evening.
Alessandro Deiola was booked in the 56th minute, and Kevin Carlos followed him into the referee's book in the 88th — both yellows speaking to a Cagliari side that grew increasingly desperate as the clock wound down. Inter, for their part, conceded just five fouls all match and kept their shape.
The visitors put up 31 shots themselves, seven on target, and the scoreline staying at 1-0 will feel like a slight escape for Inter — or at least a missed opportunity to put the game to bed more comfortably. Still, you don't always need to be ruthless when you're this dominant in possession.
Verdict
Internazionale arrived at the Unipol Domus in strong form and left with three points that looked comfortable from the moment Çalhanoglu struck. Cagliari, despite their own four-game winning run coming in, never looked like getting back into this one. The question now is whether that attacking bluntness — zero shots on target at home — is a one-off or something that will follow them into the tougher fixtures ahead. For Inter, the bigger concern might be leaving a win like this at just 1-0 when the chances were there to bury it.
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