Hakan Calhanoglu hit a stunning goal on his Inter Milan debut and Edin Dzeko followed suit as new coach Simone Inzaghi was treated by his team to a 4-0 win.
They beat Genoa on Saturday for a dazzling opening day win to the new Italian Serie A season.
After defecting from AC Milan to join the Rossoneri’s city rivals in the close season, Calhanoglu also managed an assist at San Siro, setting up the opener for Milan Skriniar.
This was about as ideal an opening-day outcome as former Lazio boss Inzaghi could have imagined, with his team two goals to the good inside a quarter of an hour.
This did make light of the changes which have followed their Scudetto success last season.
Arturo Vidal got the third in the second half before Dzeko marked his Inter Milan bow with a classic header in the 87th minute.
Inzaghi’s predecessor Antonio Conte quit in May, Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi have departed in big-money deals.
As recently as Friday the influential technical chief Gabriele Oriali was “relieved” of his duties.
But this did not look like a team in crisis.
Veteran striker Dzeko has arrived from Roma, and both he and Calhanoglu starred here, clicking immediately.
Stefano Sensi slotted in just behind targetman Dzeko in a 3-5-1-1 formation, but it was a defender who made the sixth-minute breakthrough.
Calhanoglu notched nine assists for AC Milan in Serie A last season.
His first for the Nerazzurri arrived when his whipped corner-kick from the right was headed powerfully into the left corner of the Genoa goal by Skriniar.
Genoa’s marking left a lot to be desired, but there was little they could do to prevent Inter Milan stretching their lead in the 14th minute with a delicious goal from Calhanoglu.
He collected a short pass from Dzeko and thrashed a 25-yard shot into the bottom right corner.
Dzeko hit the crossbar with a deflected shot on the turn from Matteo Darmian’s cross, and Ivan Perisic was denied a goal by a VAR offside verdict.
That was after he sprinted through and beat Salvatore Sirigu, who had earlier saved well from Marcelo Brozovic.
Perisic was again marginally offside before he teed up Calhanoglu to rifle into the top left corner after the interval, and that meant another Inter Milan goal did not stand.
They found a third goal in the 74th minute though, substitute Vidal drilling in from close range after Dzeko’s shot was parried out.
Nicolo Barella teased the ball into Vidal and he converted, with Dzeko later meeting Vidal’s delicious delivery and making no mistake.
Just like Inter Milan all afternoon.
