Soccer Football - Champions League - Inter Milan v Crvena Zvezda - San Siro, Milan, Italy - October 1, 2024 Inter Milan's Mehdi Taremi celebrates scoring their fourth goal REUTERS/Claudia Greco
MILAN, Italy (Reuters) -Inter Milan's Mehdi Taremi scored his first goal for his new club and provided two assists to help them secure a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade in their Champions League clash at the San Siro on Tuesday.
Hakan Calhanoglu opened the scoring with a superb first half free kick, before Taremi’s tenacity set up further goals for Marko Arnautovic and Lautaro Martinez as the Iran forward fed off errors in defence from the visitors.
The 32-year-old Taremi, who joined as a free agent in July after leaving Porto, then converted a penalty late on to seal a superb night as Inter added to the point they earned in their Champions League opener at Manchester City.
Red Star will feel three of the goals were preventable having been caused by slip-ups at the back and they did have some half-chances of their own, but slipped to a second successive loss in the league phase of the competition.
Inter led after 11 minutes thanks to a sumptuous free kick from Calhanoglu, who curled his shot in off the post from 25 yards, leaving Omri Glazer in the Red Star goal with no chance.
Inter had the ball in the net on two more occasions in the first half, but Arnautovic and Denzel Dumfries were adjudged offside, while later Henrikh Mkhitaryan blazed over the bar from close range.
Inter doubled their advantage just before the hour-mark as former AC Milan midfielder Rade Krunic was robbed of possession just outside his own area by Taremi, who slipped the ball through to Arnautovic to side-foot home from 10-yards.
Martinez came off the bench to seal the points as the hosts profited from another defensive error. This time Taremi took advantage of a heavy touch from centre back Uros Spajic and fed the Argentine forward for a simple finish.
Inter were awarded a penalty when Vanja Drkusic felled Martinez in the box and Taremi converted the spot-kick with ease to cap an excellent night.
Inter are at Young Boys on Oct. 23 in their next Champions League fixture while Red Star travel to Monaco a day earlier.
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Ken Ferris and Toby Davis)
