Plzen, Czech Republic, Sept 13 (AFP/APP): Edin Dzeko and Denzel Dumfries were on target as Inter Milan beat 10-man Viktoria Plzen 2-0 away for their first win of the Champions League season on Tuesday.
Inter made amends for last week’s 2-0 home defeat by Bayern, who are playing Barcelona later on Tuesday.
“I’m definitely very happy, my players stayed focused throughout the game and I thanked them for that afterwards,” said Inter manager Simone Inzaghi.
“The players wanted to win today, they went for it and deserved the victory.”
Dzeko opened the scores in Plzen after 20 minutes during which the hosts had barely crossed the half-way line.
The 36-year-old Bosnian beat goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek with a low shot to the far post after Joaquin Correa had found him on the left side of the box.
It was Dzeko’s 10th goal against Plzen in different competitions including two hat tricks he had scored as an AS Roma player in 2016 and 2018.
Plzen, beaten 5-1 at Barcelona last week, had little to offer, and their chances suffered a lethal blow on 60 minutes when midfielder Pavel Bucha was sent off after hitting Nicolo Barella’s shin with his spikes.
Ten minutes later, Dzeko sprinted down the pitch on a counter-attack and picked out an unmarked Dumfries who beat Stanek at the far post again.
Inzaghi said the red card had “definitely helped” his team.
“But we controlled the game until then, the only flaw was that it was still only 1-0”.
“We are glad that we have turned a difficult game into an easy one,” said Inzaghi.
Stanek kept the hosts’ chances alive as he denied Dzeko each side of half time and cleared Robin Gosens’s header at the post after the break.
Inter host Barcelona in their next Champions League game on October 4 while Plzen travel to Bayern.
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