Milan, Aug. 14 (BUS): It took Romelu Lukaku just 82 seconds to celebrate his return to Inter Milan with a goal.
But it was Denzel Dumfries who sealed the match with an injury-time win to seal Inter’s 2-1 victory over newly promoted Lecce on Saturday, just as the Nerazzurri appeared to be heading for a surprise equaliser, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s a victory we wanted with our hearts, the team believed until the end,” said Inter coach Simone Inzaghi. “Objectively speaking, a team like ours should have finished earlier, especially since we scored in the first minute.
“We had a great spirit but we have to analyze why we turned to win at the last second.”
Milan also got off to a winning start as they opened their league title defense with a 4-2 victory over Udinese – albeit with the help of a controversial penalty kick.
Inter have brought Lukaku back on loan this off-season, a year after he left to join Chelsea shortly after the Nerazzurri launched the Serie A title.
Coincidentally, Lukaku started his second stint with Inter in the same team he faced on his debut when he scored in the 4-0 win three years ago.
It took less than two minutes for the Belgian striker to reopen the Inter account. Federico Dimarco crossed from the left and Matteo Darmian nodded again across the goal for Lukaku to head in from close range.
Contrary to what happened in Lukaku’s debut, there was no surrender from Lecce. The hosts leveled shortly after the end of the first half when Federico Di Francesco Assan Sessay fired in an angled shot into the far lower corner.
Lecce almost took a surprise lead after an hour, but Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic managed to block a violent free kick by Kristian Pestrovic.
It was all Inter after that, though. Dumfries saw a header come off the post, while Lukaku canceled a goal due to an error in the reinforcements.
Lecce goalkeeper Vladimiro Falcone also saved a number of great saves, including Lukaku’s late save.
But Falcon was let down by his defenders in the fifth minute of stoppage time because they failed to monitor Dumfries and hit the ball from close range after Lautaro Martinez nodded from a corner.
var controversy
It took less than 10 minutes of the Serie A season for the first refereeing controversy to arrive.
Milan were behind when captain David Calabria collided with rival defender Brandon Sobe while both were scoring in the penalty area.
After a long pause while reviewing the incident on the stadium screen, referee Livio Marinelli awarded a penalty to Milan – much to the chagrin of the visiting team.
Theo Hernandez scored the penalty and Ante Rebic fired Milan ahead shortly afterwards.
Udinese was one of the only teams – besides Juventus – Milan failed to win in their title-winning campaign.
A completely sold-out San Siro less than two minutes ago was silenced on the clock when Rodrigo Picao headed in a corner kick to give Udinese a surprise lead.
Although Milan quickly turned things around, they found themselves stalled at the break when Roberto Pereira’s cross hit from the right and Adam Massena ran away from his mark with a header in the first half.
However, Milan regained their lead just 30 seconds after the break, with two Udinese defenders entangling as they attempted to tackle a Hernandez cross, allowing Brahim Diaz to tap into the back post.
Diaz also had a hand in fourth for Milan as he made his way along the sideline before rolling the ball through Rebic to fire it into the upper left corner.
Two of Milan’s new signings made their debut as Belgian players Charles de Kettleri and Divock Origi were included in the second half.
The 21-year-old had a late goal ruled out for offside.
Berlusconi’s return
Silvio Berlusconi’s return to Serie A ended in defeat as his newly promoted team Monza lost 2-1 at home to Torino.
Berlusconi owned Milan for 31 years before selling it in 2017. The former Italian prime minister bought Monza the following year.
Meanwhile, substitute Ademola Lookman scored on his debut to help Atalanta win 2-0 at Sampdoria. Lookman’s goal came in stoppage time after Samp hit the net twice.
Raphael Toloi scored the opening goal for Atalanta.