A goal by Romelu Lukaku in the 86th minute gave Inter the victory in Milan against Porto in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16. The Belgian decided an even match, with chances on both sides, in a play where he first headed the post and on the rebound he sent the ball into the net (1-0).
The initial impetus of the locals, translated into two approaches by Lautaro and Çalhanoğlu, was little by little counteracted by a Portuguese team with an increasing presence in the opposite area. The match turned into a run of the streets, with little calm in the center of the field and a lot of verticality on the wings, even in too much of a hurry to reach the three rival sticks.
A genius backheel from Taremi ended with a shot from Grujic parried by Onana, in what was Porto's best chance in the first half. For their part, the Nerazzurri came close to scoring on the stroke of half-time with an own shot from Uribe saved in extremis by Diogo Costa.
Before the intermission, the game got dirty with various fights. The first was in the same team, with a vehement recrimination from Onana to Dzeko, and the second ended in a threat of tangana that ended with yellow cards for Dimarco and Otávio, the latter ultimately important for the outcome of the match and perhaps for the better. the tie.
After the restart, Taremi was able to advance to the Portuguese twice, but again the Cameroonian goalkeeper won the game. Porto came out of the dressing room more incisive, combining speed and intelligence in their attacks to catch the transalpines in disarray in transitions.
Inter reacted, definitively tilting the field towards Onana's goal, and ended up locking Sergio Conceiçao's men in their area in the last quarter of an hour due to the expulsion of Otávio, who saw the second yellow card for a late attack on Çalhanoğlu. The Portuguese, who is the most creative player in Porto's midfield, will miss the second leg at Do Dragão.
With numerical superiority, the locals chained arrivals against a Porto that bailed out water. The precipitation and lack of precision seemed to leave Simone Inzaghi's men without a prize until Lukaku, entered in the 58th minute, unleashed the euphoria at the Giuseppe Meazza.
Inter: Onana; Skriniar (Dumfries, m.81), Acerbi, Bastoni; Darmian, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan (Brozovic, m.72), Dimarco (Gosens, m.58); Lautaro y Dzeko (Lukaku, m.58)
Porto: Diego Costa; John Mario (Borges, m.92), Pepe, Marcano, Zaidu; Pepe, Uribe, Grujic, Galen (Evanilson, m.51); Otavio and Taremi (Wendel, m.83)
Goals: 1-0, m.86: Lukaku.
Referee: Srdjan Jovanovic (Serbia). He showed yellow cards to Dimarco (m. 41) for Inter, and Otavio (m.41, m.78), Pepê (m.63), Conceicao (m.92) for Porto.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, played at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium (San Siro) in Milan
