Inter thrashed Lecce in a 4-0 victory at the Stadio Via del Mare on Sunday, February 25, 2024.
Coming off nine victories in a row to start 2024, Inter travelled south to Lecce to take on Roberto D’Aversa and his side in Serie A. The Nerazzurri made several changes compared to their previous lineup, largely due to injury and illness.
Lecce lined up as follows (4-2-3-1): Falcone; Gendrey, Baschirotto, Touba, Gallo; Blin, Ramadani; Almqvist, Rafia, Sansone; Piccoli.
Inter lined up as follows (3-5-2): Audero; Bisseck, de Vrij, Carlos Augusto; Dumfries, Frattesi, Asllani, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Alexis Sánchez, Lautaro Martínez.
Inter began the match on the front foot. In the 15th minute of play, Kristjan Asllani spotted Lautaro Martínez with a brilliant through-ball to play the forward in on goal. The Argentine struck to net his 100th Serie A goal for Inter- a feat only accomplished by two other foreigners for the club.
In the 22nd minute of the match, Alexis Sánchez showed his timeless ability and put a lovely cross in for Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The veteran midfielder missed the target but wasn’t far off and Inter was very close to doubling their lead before half.
Following the break and shortly into the second half, Lecce was determined to equal the score. A decent chance came about following a combination of several Lecce players, but the final effort sailed over the bar.
In the 54th minute, Alexis Sánchez was involved again, this time dancing around the box and making his way to the byline. A smooth ball into the heart of Lecce’s 6-yard box and Davide Frattesi was able to tap it in.
No more than two minutes later, it was Davide Frattesi again on the break in Lecce’s half. A bursting run to get away from his defenders and a perfect ball into the path of Lautaro Martínez and the captain doubled his goal tally for the match, increasing Inter’s lead to three!
Ten minutes later, Inter had a corner. Federico Dimarco whipped it in, Stefan de Vrij got his head to it and put the ball in the back of the net! The Dutch international was seemingly free in the box and got his first goal of the season.
Towards the end of the match, in the 78th minute, substitute and debutant Ebenezer Akinsanmiro fed fellow substitute Marko Arnautović who had his effort denied by the Lecce goalkeeper. A good showing from the 19-year-old Nigerian midfielder on his senior Inter debut!
In the closing minutes of the match, substitute Nicolò Barella put in a sublime ball and Denzel Dumfries was completely free in front of goal, but miscued his header and the ball bounced wide of the net.
Following a dominant performance, here are our Inter ratings.
Player Ratings
Emil Audero – 6.5
Lecce did not give the goalkeeper much to do today, but when they did, he dealt with it without any issues.
Yann Bisseck – 7
Completed 99% of his passes, 5/6 of his long balls, won 5/6 of his ground duels. A physical specimen and showed it.
Stefan de Vrij – 8
A near-perfect performance. Absolutely class in the middle of the defence today, even getting his first goal of the season. Rock solid defensively.
Carlos Augusto – 7
A fantastic backup for Alessandro Bastoni. Played the LCB role today with ease, letting nothing past him.
Denzel Dumfries – 6.5
Another good performance to build on. Only fault was missing an open chance in front of goal- luckily Inter was up 4-0 at that point.
Davide Frattesi – 8
Fantastic impact today getting a goal and an assist. Used his pace and physicality at both ends of the pitch.
Kristjan Asllani – 7
Great assist for the opening goal making a pass that few players at the club would be able to complete. Heavily involved in the match before being taken off shortly into the second half after receiving a yellow card.
Henikh Mkhitaryan – 6.5
Everywhere today for the Nerazzurri. Showed his age is not slowing him down.
Federico Dimarco – 7
Created several chances along the left side for his team. Got a great assist off of a corner for Inter’s fourth goal of the match and had a rocket of a shot that was narrowly saved by the Lecce goalkeeper.
Alexis Sánchez – 7.5
His best performance of the season, to date. Extremely involved in the ball, saw lots of the ball and could have had several goal contributions. Registered a very well-worked assist to Davide Frattesi.
Lautaro Martínez (C) – 8.5
Scored a brace to mark his 100th and 101st Serie A goals for Inter, becoming one of three foreign players to mark this milestone for the club. Also, passed his personal best league goal tally, overtaking last season at 21 goals. Now has 22 this season in 23 Serie A appearances.
Substitutes
Nicolò Barella – 6.5
Provided his usual class as a second-half substitute for Kristjan Asllani.
Davy Klaassen – 6
Came in and did nothing wrong.
Marko Arnautović – 6
Not super involved and could have had a goal.
Ebenezer Akinsanmiro – 6.5
Made his senior Inter debut and looked extremely comfortable. Could have had an assist and showed his dribbling and close-control skills.
Tajon Buchanan – 6
Entered on the left-hand side and was not particularly involved. Had some good flashes and crosses on his weaker foot.
Great performance overall. I thought Audero did good, but one could easily see the enormous presence of Sommer in our build up play. Especially in the first 25 mins. when Lecce really pressed our backline. I could see a better team fare better against us, if not Sommer on goal, and also without Acerbi, Pavard and Bastoni. That last sentence really put it in perspective, how good we actually were again yesterday. This is plain right ridiculous.
Can we beat Atalanta who has 8 wins and 2 draws in the last 10, then it is really looking good. But I don’t trust them. Luckily I trust our team more.
I think we’re all running out of superlatives for this team, but I really can’t remember another squad that blew opponents out the water on such a regular basis like this one in over 25 years. This is the third straight Serie A game we’ve scored 4 in. Long live Inzaghiball!
Great performance from a number of players that aren’t starting much this season: Bisseck, Frattesi, Alexis Sanchez. Even Klaassen was pretty good coming off the bench: he seemed to be much more in tune with his teammates ans connected on lots of nice passes and runs.
Dumfries also did well apart from that shocking open header miss in the very end. I really think Dumfries should be starting over Darmian once again. Darmian remains solid, but has not offered much going forward in a while now, while Dumfries has been excellent either starting or coming off the bench multiple games in a row.
Wednesday’s match against Atalanta should be fun. They’ve been unusually solid and pragmatic this season: less balls-to-the-wall in attack and a lot more solid in defence. I hope their weekend game against Milan tired them out more.
It’s true it was against a lower-mid table side, but getting a 4-0 result in an away match on the opposite side of the country while rotating more than half the squad is nothing to sneeze at.
Probably Frattesi’s best match at Inter thus far. Sanchez was also great — he’s not the player he was even the last time he was here, but he’s found ways to rely on his intelligence rather than his declining physical abilities to still make things happen. Bissek and Asllani had good matches. Audero cut things a little too close for my liking a couple times, but a clean sheet is a clean sheet. And the new kid had a very nice little debut: drew a couple fouls, and had that one pretty impressive dribble.
As for Lautaro, though…what’s left to say about this guy? He’s literally gotten better every single year he’s been here, and he’s unquestionably one of the best strikers on earth right now. Just an unreal season he’s having.