Dominant Inter sweep past Slavia Prague in Champions League

Inter Milan continued their strong start to this season’s Champions League on Tuesday with a comfortable 3-0 win over Slavia Prague at the San Siro.

Goals in each half from captain Lautaro Martinez and another strike from Denzel Dumfries made sure that dominant Inter joined Real Madrid and Bayern Munich on perfect six points.

Last year’s losing finalists are on a run of four straight wins in all competitions and were fully deserved winners in Milan.

Inter fans were treated to a match which was one-way traffic from the first whistle and could have easily ended with more goals for the home team, building on strong recent performances under new coach Cristian Chivu.

“Perfection doesn’t exist but I can see so much effort from the boys and the willingness to accept things that they were used to doing in the past. That makes me happy and proud,” said Chivu.

Martinez was gifted the chance to give Inter the lead on the half-hour when Slavia goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek’s weak pass towards David Zima was pounced on by the Argentina striker and rolled into an empty net.

And four minutes later Inter were two ahead following a rapid counter attack launched by Francesco Acerbi and finished off by Dumfries, via some fancy footwork and a perfect low cross from Marcus Thuram.

And France forward Thuram showed another touch of class for Martinez’s second in the 65th minute, executing a perfect backheeled pass for Alessandro Bastoni who then squared across for his rampaging skipper.

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Man-of-the-match Thuram left the field shortly afterwards with what Chivu later said was a cramp, and the man himself later said the knock was “nothing serious”.

It was the perfect end to a happy day for Inter who alongside local rivals AC Milan were given the green light to purchase the San Siro from the city of Milan.

Approval of the sale of the San Siro and adjacent land on the same site for 197 million euros ($231 million) came at nearly 4:00am (0200 GMT) on Tuesday morning after more than 11 hours of debate at city hall.

Inter and AC Milan called the vote “a historic and decisive step for the future of the clubs and the city”, but the sale has to be completed by November 10 when a building protection order preventing any demolition will come into effect if the site is still in public hands.

The two clubs are hoping to build a new 71,500-capacity arena before knocking down the San Siro, although the bulldozers are unlikely to come for the current stadium before 2031.