Goalkeeper’s unorthodox tactics got in Inter captain’s head as Allegri’s side held on for all three points at San Siro
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t had taken 73 minutes, and a VAR review, but Inter finally had their breakthrough in the Milan derby, the referee, Simone Sozza, pointing to the spot after he saw replays of Strahinja Pavlovic treading on Marcus Thuram’s foot inside the box. Now all that remained was for Hakan Calhanoglu to convert and make the score 1-1.
A formality. Since arriving in Serie A, the Turkey captain had been practically automatic in these situations – scoring 27 out of 28 penalties taken for Inter, and three out of three for Milan before that. Entire newspaper columns and late-night TV broadcasts were given over to analysing his infallibility, before he finally smacked one against a post in a draw at home to Napoli last year.
Even then, no goalkeeper had ever stopped him. By now they knew his favourite place to aim, the bottom left from his perspective, and still that was not enough to keep his shots out. Calhanoglu struck the ball so cleanly into the corners that most simply could not get there from the middle of the goal. And if you cheated across, he would change direction.
