Inter beat Cagliari 3-0 at San Siro on Friday evening, and the result was built in a four-minute window between the 52nd and 56th minutes that turned a tense, goalless contest into a procession. The Nerazzurri, playing at home under coach Cristian Chivu, scored twice in that spell and added a third in stoppage time to record their third consecutive victory in Serie A.
The first half offered little beyond two yellow cards — one on each side, both arriving within two minutes of each other in the 23rd and 25th — which hinted at a match being contested in the margins rather than through open play. Cagliari, managed by Davide Nicola, sat compact and gave Inter's build-up limited space to breathe. The Nerazzurri had the ball but not the incision, and the interval arrived goalless.
The second half was a different proposition entirely. Inter scored at the 52nd minute, and before Cagliari could reorganise, they scored again at the 56th. Two goals in four minutes is not a collapse so much as a structural failure: Nicola's side had held shape for 52 minutes and then conceded twice before the coaching staff could make a single change. The double substitution that followed at the 57th minute — two players off, two on — was the correct response, but it arrived one minute too late to prevent the damage. Inter's third, added in the 90th minute after a wave of substitutions from both benches, confirmed what the scoreline had already communicated.
Inter midfielder Nicolo Barella was the top-rated player on the pitch, finishing with a 7.7 — the only performer in either XI to clear that threshold. He contributed no goals or assists in the 39 minutes of data captured, but a rating of 7.7 in a match where Inter's second-half control was near-total reflects something the raw output doesn't: the quality of his positioning between the lines, the speed with which he recycled possession, and the pressure he applied when Cagliari tried to build from the back. Inter's next rated performers — Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu and Inter defender Federico Dimarco — each registered 7.0, with several Inter players registering 6.9, suggesting a collective performance rather than a one-man show, which is consistent with how Chivu's side has been functioning across this run.
Cagliari's evening was shaped by a form curve that made this result foreseeable. Nicola's squad arrived at San Siro having won just once in their previous four fixtures — a 1-0 home result against Cremonese — and having conceded seven goals in the three matches before that. Against Inter, they managed to suppress the home side for 52 minutes, which is not nothing, but their attacking threat was negligible. The head-to-head record between these clubs now reads two Inter wins from two meetings, both without a Cagliari goal, which points to a structural mismatch rather than bad fortune.
Inter's recent form now reads three wins from three: 4-3 at Como, 5-2 against AS Roma at home, and now this. The Nerazzurri have scored twelve goals across those three fixtures. For Cagliari, the table picture is more pressing: four defeats in five matches, with the lone win coming against a Cremonese side fighting in the same lower reaches of the standings. The gap between Nicola's side and the relegation zone will have narrowed, and the fixtures ahead carry increasing weight.
Inter's win here extends a sequence that has transformed their late-season position. Three consecutive victories, twelve goals scored, and a defensive record that has conceded only once in the last two league matches — the draw at Fiorentina — gives Chivu's side the momentum that title races are decided by.
A month from now, this match will be remembered not for its drama but for its efficiency: Inter needed 52 minutes to unlock Cagliari, then needed four more to make the result irretrievable.