Inter came from behind to beat Fiorentina 2-1 at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, with Piotr Zielinski converting a penalty in the 90+7' to complete a turnaround that had begun six minutes earlier through Marcus Thuram. The margin was earned entirely in stoppage time, and it arrived against a Fiorentina side that had led for the final quarter of normal play.
The match's decisive passage was compressed into eleven extraordinary minutes. Fiorentina defender Álex Jiménez, assisted by Nicolò Fagioli, gave the visitors the lead at 65' — a goal that arrived against the run of a game Inter had controlled for the better part of an hour. Chivu's Inter responded with a wave of substitutions: Federico Dimarco on for Alessandro Bastoni at 77', Piotr Zielinski on for Hakan Çalhanoğlu at 78', Petar Sučić on for Henrikh Mkhitaryan at 78'. The structural shift mattered. At 90+1', Inter forward Marcus Thuram converted an equalizer, assisted by Andy Diouf, to level the score at 1-1. The match appeared to be heading toward a draw that would have flattered neither side, but a penalty was awarded deep in added time, and Zielinski stepped up to finish it at 90+7'. Three yellows for Fiorentina — Viery at 70', Valde at 90+5', Dodô at 90+11' — traced the arc of a side unravelling under pressure.
Zielinski is the key individual here, not for the volume of his contribution but for its precision. Introduced as a substitute at 78', the Inter midfielder needed fewer than fifteen minutes to produce the goal that separated the sides. The penalty was the decisive goal, the one that produced the final margin, and it came from a player trusted by Chivu to change the match from the bench. That trust was repaid in the clearest possible terms.
Fiorentina's evening encapsulates a broader problem Paolo Vanoli's side cannot yet solve. The goal at 65' — a lead held for twenty-five minutes of normal time — suggested they had found something to build on. Instead, the inability to manage the game's closing stages cost them everything. Jiménez, who scored the opener, was substituted off at 75', and the double change at that same minute — Dodô on, Wilfried Gnonto on — did not stabilise the side. Three yellow cards in the final stages reflect a team defending desperately rather than intelligently.
Inter's form trajectory continues upward. Chivu's side came into this fixture having won four and drawn one of their last five matches; they now carry three consecutive wins, conceding just two goals across that run. Fiorentina's picture is the inverse: one win, one draw and three defeats across their last five matches in all competitions, and across their last three Serie A fixtures they have now taken zero points from a possible nine, scoring three and conceding seven.
A side that trailed with twenty-five minutes remaining and still found a way to win in the eleventh minute of added time is a side with more than just quality — it has the kind of late-game conviction that separates contenders from the rest.