Inter Milan stayed close behind Napoli at the top of Serie A after a first-half penalty from Kristjan Asllani gave them a 1-0 win over struggling Hellas Verona. The victory marked Inter’s eighth home league win in a row against Verona.
With Napoli going six points clear earlier in the day, Inter needed to respond — and they got off to a quick start. After a VAR check, a handball by Nicolás Valentini gave Inter a penalty, which Asllani calmly converted, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way for his first league goal of the season.
Boosted by the early goal, Inter nearly doubled their lead through Nicola Zalewski’s powerful shot, but Verona’s keeper Montipò made a solid save. Verona improved as the first half went on and started defending better, though Inter still had some chances, with Marko Arnautović missing two headers.
In the second half, Inter kept most of the ball but struggled to create clear chances without Lautaro Martínez and with Marcus Thuram starting on the bench. Verona, trying to avoid a third straight loss, grew more confident and came close to scoring with shots from Ondrej Duda and Tomáš Suslov.
With a Champions League semi-final second leg coming up against Barcelona, Inter focused on seeing the game out — and they did just that. Verona couldn’t create any big chances late on, and Inter held firm to stretch their unbeaten home run against Verona in the league to 35 matches.
Verona, still without a win in six matches, will hope to turn things around against Lecce next weekend.
