Rome: Defending champions Inter Milan were
held to a surprise 1-1 draw at home to promoted Bari at the
San Siro in their first match of the new Serie A season.
Cameroon forward Samuel Eto'o scored his first goal
yesterday for Inter since joining from Barcelona in a swap
deal that saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic head to Spain, but Vitaly
Kutuzov's equaliser earned the plucky Serie A newboys a
deserved share of the spoils.
Inter coach Jose Mourinho picked new signings Eto'o and
Diego Milito up front together but they could not gel enough
to fire the champions to victory.
Eto'o went close on seven minutes when he shot through a
crowd of legs but Jean-Francois Gillet was down quickly to
make the save.
Inter were creating little in the early stages and
survived a scare at the other end when France captain Patrick
Vieira's clumsy challenge brought down Riccardo Allegretti
right on the edge of the box.
Allegretti curled the free-kick over the wall but Julio
Cesar was quickly across his line to make the save.
Vieira then played a sublime ball over the top of the
defence for Milito who couldn't keep his volley down.
Mourinho was clearly unhappy with what he saw and
switched things around before the half hour was even up,
bringing on Mario Balotelli for Sulley Muntari and changing
formation to 4-3-3 from a 4-4-2 with a midfield diamond.
Another new signing Thiago Motta shot inches wide from
just outside the area but Inter centre-backs Lucio and Marco
Materazzi got in each other's way to allow Kutuzov a run clean
through on goal, only for Belarus international to tread on
the ball and lost momentum.
Mourinho changed things again at the break, bringing
winger Ricardo Quaresma on for his defensive midfielder Vieira
and reverting to a 4-4-2 with wide men.
The move was soon to pay dividends, although in
controversial fashion as Milito slumped to the ground in the
box from what seemed to be minimal contact.
The referee pointed to the penalty spot and Eto'o easily
opened his account in Italian football.
He should have had a second on 67 minutes when Milito
teed him up inside the box but with only Gillet to beat the
former Barcelona man dragged his shot hopelessly wide.
They were made to pay for that on 74 minutes following a
defensive blunder from Lucio who charged out of position to
try to make an interception, only to leave a gaping hole for
Kutuzov to shoot past Cesar.
It should have been worse for the champions as substitute
Emmauel Rivas fired over the bar deep into stoppage time with
only Cesar to beat.
On Saturday, Inter's city rivals AC Milan won 2-1 at
Siena thanks to a brace from Brazilian Pato to boost their
confidence ahead of next weekend's Milan derby.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, August 24, 2009, 14:58