MILAN - Inter's first 2012/13 Serie A match at the Meazza ended in disappointment as Roma beat the Nerazzurri 3-1.
The first meeting between Andrea Stramaccioni and Zdenek Zeman saw the youngest and the oldest coaches in Serie A sharing the honours at the interval: Florenzi opened the scoring but Cassano pegged the visitors back on the stroke of half time. After the break Totti claimed his second assist of the game by supplying Osvaldo to restore Roma's lead, before Marquinho added a third late on.
FIRST HALF – Stramaccioni gave a full debut to Alvaro Pereira and the Uruguayan started in midfield alongside Guarin and Gargano. Milito led the line with Sneijder and Cassano in support. Meanwhile, Destro was making his debut for Roma in a three-man attack alongside Totti and Osvaldo.
A minute's silence was held in memory of the late Cardinal Martini before kick-off.
The game began at a high tempo as Nagatomo ran an early duel with Destro. The Japanese full-back came out on top both on the wing (4 minutes) and on the edge of the box (6), earning a roar of approval from the Meazza crowd. Roma began aggressively and Osvaldo almost muscled his way past Silvestre in the 13th minute, but the defender did enough to hold off the striker and allow Castellazzi to collect.
The visitors took the lead after a quarter of an hour: Totti's cross found Florenzi free in the box and the youngster nodded past Castellazzi into the far corner.
Inter tried to hit back immediately and it looked good when Milito was put clean through on goal, only for Stekelenburg to stick out a hand as the Argentine tried to skip past him.
Sneijder found the Prince with a 29th-minute corner but Balzaretti blocked the striker's path – illegitimately according to Milito. However, the ref saw nothing wrong with it.
A foot injury forced De Rossi to come off early, with Marquinho replacing him.
In the 35th minute Burdisso seemed to handball Cassano's cross in the box but replays showed it hit his chest.
Then, on 38 minutes, Nagatomo tried to go it alone and he did well to work his way into the box but could only lift his attempt over the bar.
We were already into first-half injury time when Cassano decided to open his Nerazzurri account: picking up Sneijder's cross, he turned away from Castan inside the box and unleashed a right-footer which took a deflection off Burdisso and spun onto the far corner of the goal.
SECOND HALF – The sides emerged from the dressing-rooms unchanged. Roma had a couple of chances to regain the lead as first Tachtsidis then Destro provided decent service for Osvaldo, but the Italo-Argentine failed to make the most of either.
On 55 minutes Palacio, having taken over from Cassano, shook off the challenge of Piris and fed Guarin, who charged forward and fired over the bar under pressure from Castan. Minutes later Guaro was on the prowl again and went one better, this time forcing a save out of Stekelenburg.
Totti then served up the killer pass for Roma's second, his perfectly weighted ball providing Osvaldo with the opportunity to chip the onrushing Castellazzi from the edge of the box. 1-2 to Roma.
Florenzi could have made it three in the 74th minute but instead it was Marquinho who did so 7 minutes later: Osvaldo scooped a pass into the box for the Brazilian to bring down and drill past Castellazzi at the near post from a tight angle.
Inter were unable to find a route back into the game and, after three minutes of added time, Bergonzi called a halt to proceedings.
INTER 1-3 ROMA (HT: 1-1)
Scorers: Florenzi 15, Cassano 45+1, Osvaldo 67, Marquinho 81.
Inter: 12 Castellazzi;
4 Zanetti, 6 Silvestre, 23 Ranocchia, 55 Nagatomo; 14 Guarin, 21
Gargano (Coutinho 76), 31 Pereira (Cambiasso 66); 10
Sneijder; 99 Cassano (Palacio 51), 22 Milito.
Unused subs: 27 Belec, 32 Cincilla, 25 Samuel, 40 Juan
Jesus, 41 Duncan, 42 Jonathan, 88 Livaja.
Coach:
Andrea Stramaccioni.
Roma: 24 Stekelenburg;
23 Piris, 29 Burdisso, 5 Castan, 42 Balzaretti (Taddei 66); 77
Tachtsidis, 16 De Rossi (Marquinho 77), 48 Florenzi; 22 Destro (Lamela 71), 9 Osvaldo, 10 Totti.
Unused subs:
1 Lobont, 55 Svedkauskas, 3 Marquinhos, 15 Pjanic, 17 Lopez, 26
Tallo, 46 Romagnoli.
Coach: Zdenek Zeman.
Referee: Mauro Bergonzi (Genoa).
Booked: Destro 16, Guarin 33, Ranocchia 47, Osvaldo 65, 90+1, Stekelenburg 77.
Sent off: Osvaldo 90+1.
Attendance: 43,385.
