Inter 3-0 Parma: Sucic, Calhanoglu and Thuram spoil Gilardino's debut

Inter beat Parma 3-0 at San Siro on Saturday, with Petar Sucic, Hakan Calhanoglu and Marcus Thuram all scoring inside the first 31 minutes. Cristian Chivu's side move to 16 points from six games, three clear of Roma and Lazio, who both play on Sunday, while Alberto Gilardino lost his first match in charge of Parma.

Three goals in 18 minutes

Both sides had early chances: Federico Dimarco forced a save from Edoardo Corvi, and El Bilal Touré curled narrowly off target. Inter's pressing then took over. In the 13th minute Corvi played a loose short pass to Mandela Keita, Sucic stole the ball and smashed it in. Soon after, Diego Carlos stood on Pio Esposito's foot in the box. The referee waved play on, but VAR sent him to the monitor, and Calhanoglu converted the penalty low and hard in the 18th minute.

The third came on the counter. Henrikh Mkhitaryan released Thuram beyond halfway, and the Parma-born forward placed an angled shot into the far corner, his fifth goal in five meetings with Parma according to Football Italia. Inter have now scored with 10 different players this season; Sky Sport Italia noted that no club in Europe's top five leagues has more, with Brighton level on 10.

Inter eased off after the break. Corvi blocked Esposito's close-range effort with his foot, and Corriere della Sera counted only one Inter shot on target in the second half. Over the 90 minutes Inter had 19 shots to Parma's nine.

Rotation before Club Brugge

Chivu left Lautaro Martínez, Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolò Barella, Manuel Akanji and Piotr Zielinski on the bench with Tuesday's Champions League game against Club Brugge in mind, Corriere della Sera reported. Inter are still looking for a first win in the competition after losing their opener in Madrid. Lautaro, Ange-Yoan Bonny and Aleksandar Stankovic came on just after the hour, Stankovic replacing Calhanoglu, who then sat on the bench with ice on his left knee. Djed Spence, signed from Tottenham in the summer, made his Inter debut for the last quarter of an hour.

"Calhanoglu had a great game. I didn't see the ice after he came off, but he's fine: we need everyone for this demanding run," Chivu said after the match. He described the match as "an unknown after three weeks of break, something that had never happened", and added: "I'm happy with the energy we had. We adapted to the opponent straight away, even though we didn't have much information."

A hard first day for Gilardino

Gilardino took over during the international break after Parma sacked Carlos Cuesta, despite a 2-1 win over Genoa in their last game before it. "I think we started well: there was harmony, good passing, and we created some danger. When you make naive mistakes at San Siro, everything becomes harder. I'm angrier about the third goal," Gilardino told DAZN. He said Parma had changed "a few things in the way we work, both physically and tactically", and that it "will take time" for them to sink in.

Parma stay on four points, one of six clubs on that total, and have not beaten Inter since 2018, according to Gazzetta di Parma. Inter, with five wins and a draw from six league games, are top for now; Roma visit Como and Lazio host Monza on Sunday.