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Epic Brozo: Marcelo Brozovic goal puts Inter Milan over Sampdoria 1-0

Despite win, VAR creates more questions than answers.

UC Sampdoria v FC Internazionale - Serie A
Kwadwo Asamoah of Inter and Gregoire Defrel of Sampdoria during the serie A match between UC Sampdoria and FC Internazionale at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on September 22, 2018 in Genoa, Italy.
Photo by Paolo Rattini/Getty Images

A strike by midfielder Marcelo Brozovic seemed to overturn the concerns of a pair of VAR calls that denied earlier scores for Inter Milan.

Nonetheless, the Brozovic strike was enough to push the Nerazzurri to a 1-0 win at Sampdoria at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris. It was the second straight win in all competitions for Inter following a 2-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the week in the Champions League opener for both teams.

It also helped erase a 1-0 home loss to Parma the previous week that pushed Inter down into 15th place in Serie A. The win moved the Nerazzurri into seventh.

But, the overriding story line of the match were the disallowed goals by Radja Nainggolan in the first half and a second one denied by VAR for Kwadwo Asamoah.

One thing the VAR decisions did was somewhat galvanize the “us against the world” mentality for Nerazzurri fans.

In the first half Fabio Quagliarella, Karol Linetty and Defrel had shots for Sampdoria, but all three were tame in their delivery and yielded no result.

In the 43rd minute, it was Nainggolan who sent a shot from the edge of the penalty area, but the VAR ruled a player offsides, disallowing the goal.

That seemed to give Inter some momentum into the second half as it was Antonio Candreva who made the first solid shot on goal for Inter just after the restart. Mauro Icardi and Milan Skriniar each had heading shots sail just wide.

Candreva had another attempt midway into the second half, but Sampdoria goalkeeper Emil Audero pulled down a solid save.

Near the end of the match, Asamoah had his attempt ruled back by VAR and Sampdoria had a similar call on the other end of the field.

Finally, in the 94th minute, Brozovic struck gold after Ivan Perisic crossed into the penalty area.

The Nerazzurri return to action on Sept. 25 when they take on Fiorentina and wrap up the hectic next week with a Sept. 29 meeting with Cagliari.

Inter will start the month of October with a trip to PSV Eindhoven for their second match of the young Champions League season.


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