Marko Arnautovic gave Inter a single-goal advantage in their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie with Atletico Madrid after netting the only goal in Tuesday’s hard-fought 1-0 win.
Austria striker Arnautovic replaced Marcus Thuram at halftime and rammed home Inter’s winner with 11 minutes left at the San Siro after Jan Oblak failed to hold Lautaro Martinez’s shot.
The 34-year-old turned jeers into deafening cheers with his goal, which came after a series of missed opportunities left home fans wondering whether Inter would get the win their performance deserved.
Photo: AFP
His worst miss came just after the hour mark when he ballooned over a sitter, a dreadful finish that came before and after failed attempts to latch on to promising balls.
“It is certainly one of the most important goals of my career,” Arnautovic told Sky Sport. “In recent weeks I’ve missed a lot of chances, but the fans and the players showed they are behind me... It gave me the energy I needed to score the goal.”
Arnautovic has had a hard time since returning to Inter on loan from Bologna last summer, and those misses further frustrated supporters, but thanks to him, Inter, who are nine points clear at the top of Serie A, take a slender lead to Madrid where they are to face Atletico in the decisive second leg on March 13.
Atletico have been a more attacking proposition this season, but retreated into the dogged defensive mode more representative of Diego Simeone’s long reign in Spain. They could not keep Inter out and now have to overturn Tuesday’s result to reach the quarter-finals.
“We have to keep our heads up, there is one game left and we are going to do everything possible to to get through,” Oblak told Movistar.
“They had two or three chances when we weren’t perfect and in a game like this you have to be perfect all the time,” he added.
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