MILAN – Stefano Pioli's Inter produced a stunning performance at San Siro this afternoon, including five first-half goals, to dismantle what was previously one of Serie A's top defences.
Mauro Icardi and Ever Banega both got hat-tricks, the former in ten minutes during the first half and the latter contributing with two assists as well, while Roberto Gagliardini scored against his former employers.
The game started at full throttle and you couldn't have imagine it would have ended up so one-sided. Leonardo Spinazzola put Jasmin Kurtic into a good position that required Geoffrey Kondogbia's timely intervention, while Alejandro Gomez fired a dangerous shot narrowly past Samir Handanovic's post. Inter also had a couple of sighters early on: Perisic could well have scored had his connection on an Antonio Candreva cross been better and Cristian Ansadi's cross-shot in the tenth minute sowed panic in the area and could easily have fallen to an Inter player.
Just after a quarter of an hour, Rafael Toloi brought Icardi down just outside the area. The referee felt a yellow card was sufficient, but Atalanta were punished enough when Banega's free kick took a deflection and fell to the skipper, who fired home for the first of his perfect hat-trick (left, right and header).
The Nerazzurri doubled their lead seven minutes later, when Icardi – ever lethal in the penalty area – went to go around Etrit Berisha, forcing the Albanian keeper to chop him down illegally. Inter's No.9 stood up to take the resulting penalty, pulling off an audacious right-footed Panenka into the roof of the net.
By this point, Inter were flying and Icardi had his hat-trick just moments later in the 27th minute. Banega received a corner short, turned, looked up and delivered an inch-perfect cross for his compatriot to head into the far corner.
Like against Cagliari last week, Banega wasn't content with his role purely as assist-maker and went and scored one himself in the 31st minute. Danilo D'Ambrosio played the ball down the line for Candreva, who drilled a low cross into Banega's path, so that he only had to open up his body and guide it inside the far post. The fifth goal was a carbon copy of the fourth: Candreva crossing for Banega to slam home from inside the area.
Atalanta were reeling but did manage to pull one back with a few minutes left in the first half. Remo Freuler cut inside from the left flank, beat a defender and curled one into the bottom-right corner from the 18-yard line, leaving Handanovic with no chance.
The referee blew up right on the 45th minute to send both teams – Inter jubilant and Atalanta shellshocked – in for a rest, leaving everyone else to begin trawling through the record books.
Perhaps inevitably, the tempo dropped in the second half as Atalanta went into damage-control mode and Inter looked to conserve energy for upcoming fixtures. Nevertheless, there was still impetus enough in Inter's attacks for Gagliardini to score his second goal in as many games, rifling Banega's squared pass into the top of the net.
Then, in the 67th minute, Icardi was fouled again just outside the area, allowing Banega to bend the free kick into the bottom-right corner for his hat-trick.
With the points long since secured, Pioli was afforded the luxury of resting key players and took Icardi and Banega off to tumultuous standing ovations from the 60,000-strong crowd at San Siro.
It was another fantastic performance from the Nerazzurri that sets them up perfectly for a strong finish to the season.
Inter 7-1 Atalanta (HT: 5-1)
Scorers: Icardi 17, 24 (p.) 27, Banega 31, 34, 68, Freuler 42, Gagliardini 52.
INTER: 1 Handanovic; 33 D'Ambrosio, 17 Medel, 25 Miranda, 15 Ansaldi; 5 Gagliardini, 7 Kondogbia; 87 Candreva, 19 Banega (6 Joao Mario, 70), 44 Perisic (23 Eder, 82); 9 Icardi (8 Palacio, 76).
Subs not used: 30 Carrizo, 2 Andreolli, 11 Biabiany, 20 Sainsbury, 21 Santon, 24 Murillo, 55 Nagatomo, 77 Brozovic, 96 Barbosa.
Coach: Stefano Pioli.
ATALANTA: 1 Berisha; 3 Toloi, 13 Caldara, 6 Zukanovic; 24 Conti, 19 Kessie (95 Bastoni, 60), 11 Freuler, 37 Spinazzola (7 D'Alessandro, 69); 27 Kurtic; 29 Petagna, 10 Gomez (87 Mounier, 60).
Subs not used: 91 Gollini, 31 Rossi, 4 Cristante, 25 Konko, 33 Hateboer, 43 Paloschi, 52 Cabezas, 77 Raimondi, 88 Grassi.
Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini.
Yellow cards: Toloi 16, Berisha 23, Icardi 28, Ansaldi 61, Kurtic 72, Gagliardini 75.
Additional time: 0+0 minutes.
Referee: Massimiliano Irrati.
Assistant referees: Elenito Giovanni Di Liberatore, Ciro Carbone.
Fourth official: Sergio Ranghetti.
Additional assistants: Carmine Russo, Gianluca Aureliano.
Versión Española 日本語版 Versi Bahasa Indonesia 中文版 Versione Italiana
