Inter arrived in Bologna carrying the weight of a Champions League defeat to Bruges and the absence of Lautaro Martinez through injury. By the end of the afternoon at the Dall’Ara, Cristian Chivu’s side had turned a difficult opening into a 3-1 victory, moved alone to the top of Serie A on 19 points after seven rounds, and found another reminder that a long season is often decided by the response to an imperfect first hour.
The coach and the club
Chivu’s Inter fell behind after 10 minutes, when Luis Henrique lost possession to Miranda and Tommaso Pobega was sent through to score his first Serie A goal of the season. Bologna had begun with conviction and came close to making their advantage more secure before the break: Pobega later struck the crossbar after a Cambiaghi attempt had been blocked.
Inter had chances of their own, with Skorupski denying Barella early on and Pio Esposito at close range shortly before half-time. The equaliser arrived in the 44th minute, however, when Marcus Thuram headed in Nicolò Barella’s cross from the right. It was Thuram’s fourth league goal.
The interval changed the direction of the contest. Chivu introduced Ange-Yoan Bonny for Pio Esposito before bringing on Andy Diouf and Carlos Augusto, with the latter making an immediate impact. Carlos Augusto completed the turnaround in the 69th minute, meeting the move created by Diouf and Zielinski. Bologna protested over a possible offside, but the goal stood following the video review.
Bonny had a goal ruled out before delivering the decisive third in the 83rd minute. Carlos Augusto, now scorer and provider, set up the forward for a finish that was valid this time. Inter had recovered from a first half in which they had been tested severely and finished with the authority their coach had sought.
Chivu was without a voice after the match, leaving assistant Aleksandar Kolarov to speak for the staff. Kolarov said Inter’s approach had not been entirely wrong, while recognising that Bologna were fresher and had made the game uncomfortable through their aggression and work on second balls.
“We cannot use that as an excuse,” Kolarov said. “Bologna played a very good first half and we struggled to get hold of them. But the players know what is required and believe in it. In the second half we were in control.”
On Inter’s contrasting European form, Kolarov said the team were still trying to play with aggression in Serie A as well as in the Champions League. He noted that the side had encountered problems in Europe but retained time to recover the points lost in the opening matches.
Bonny described the strength of the squad rather than individual ambition as the foundation of the comeback. “The objective has to be a collective one,” he said. “Everybody who came on did an important job. The coach trusts everyone, and when your moment arrives you have to be ready.”
The forward said he had settled more fully into the group compared with last season and hoped to build on his current form. He also joked that Thuram, despite being close to him and fellow forward Pio Esposito, offers “only nonsense” rather than useful advice.
Bologna’s unfinished afternoon
For Raffaele Palladino, the result left Bologna on five points, but the first half supplied material on which to build. His side caused Inter real problems through their intensity and created enough opportunities to have gone into the interval with a larger lead.
Riccardo Piccoli, selected to lead the line, was forced off after half an hour with a thigh-flexor problem and was replaced by Enem. Palladino had chosen Federico Bernardeschi and Nicolò Cambiaghi behind the striker, while Inter started with Thuram and Pio Esposito in attack.
- Pobega gave Bologna the lead in the 10th minute after Miranda won the ball from Luis Henrique.
- Thuram restored parity with a header in the 44th minute.
- Carlos Augusto put Inter ahead in the 69th minute after coming off the bench.
- Bonny sealed the away win in the 83rd minute from Carlos Augusto’s assist.
Palladino praised Inter’s performance but felt his own team had let a major opportunity slip away. “I am very satisfied with what the players did in the first half,” he said. “We prepared the match well. The regret is that we did not score a second goal despite the chances we had.”
He added that leaving a match open against a side of Inter’s level is a costly choice. Bologna dropped physically after the restart and no longer produced the transitions that had troubled their visitors. Thuram’s equaliser, Palladino said, unsettled his players after a technically strong first half.
The Bologna coach also addressed his goalkeeping choice, saying both Lukasz Skorupski and the other option in his squad had his full confidence. One is experienced, he said, while the other represents the club’s future; his decisions will be made calmly according to form and the period of the season.
Aboard the Inter project
Before kick-off, Inter president Giuseppe Marotta had reflected on the club’s Champions League setback and insisted that the European landscape no longer offers straightforward fixtures, regardless of a side’s perceived standing. He pointed to Paris Saint-Germain’s previous campaign as evidence that a difficult early spell need not define the entire season.
Marotta said Inter must identify the negative elements from their European results and set a course for improvement. Asked about goalkeeper Josep Martinez, he stressed that selection belongs to the coaching staff, while the club’s role is to encourage every player to give his best.
He also addressed talk of Qatari interest in Inter, saying ownership matters were outside his remit. Marotta said Oaktree had demonstrated its support through investments in the stadium and the training facilities at Appiano Gentile, adding that the club was in safe hands and that any future decisions should serve Inter’s long-term stability.
The next Sunday
Inter’s seventh-round win, combined with Napoli’s defeat, placed Chivu’s team alone at the summit on 19 points. It is only the fourth time in the three-points-for-a-win era that Inter have reached at least 19 points after their first seven Serie A matches; the club did so in 1997-98, 2002-03 and 2017-18, though none of those starts ended with the Scudetto.
That statistic is not a verdict on this campaign, only a measure of its early pace. Inter now face Fiorentina in the eighth round, while Bologna travel into their next fixture against Cagliari. For Chivu, Bologna offered proof of recovery after Bruges. For Palladino, it offered a clearer lesson: the quality shown for 45 minutes must become a performance that survives all 90.
