Inter come from 2-0 down to beat Udinese 5-3 in an eight-goal thriller at San Siro

Udinese arrived at San Siro and, for a quarter of an hour, played like the better team in Italy. James Abankwah headed them in front in the 9th minute and Jurgen Ekkelenkamp doubled it seven minutes later, and Cristian Chivu's champions looked shaken in front of their own crowd. By full time, Inter had scored five goals to Udinese's one across the remaining 75 minutes and won 5-3 in one of the wildest matches Serie A has produced this season.

Two goals in 16 minutes, then Inter level before half-time

Both of Udinese's early goals came from exactly the kind of directness Kosta Runjaic's side had promised beforehand: Unai Gómez freed Abankwah for the opener, and Keinan Davis turned provider for Ekkelenkamp's close-range finish. Inter, missing the rested Lautaro Martínez and the injured Hakan Çalhanoglu and Djed Spence, needed a response before the game ran away from them, and they found one twice in quick succession. Carlos Augusto pulled one back with a left-footed strike in the 26th minute, and Nicolò Barella levelled it at 2-2 nine minutes later, finishing from a tight angle after Marcus Thuram set him up. Inter went in level at the break having conceded twice to a team they were expected to beat comfortably.

Thuram, Esposito and Bonny turn the game Inter's way

The second half belonged entirely to the home side. Marcus Thuram put Inter ahead for the first time on 57 minutes, finishing a move started by Andy Diouf. Ten minutes later, Francesco Pio Esposito made it 4-2, converting after Piotr Zielinski's pass split Udinese's back three. Substitute Ange-Yoan Bonny added a fifth on 79 minutes, and by then Inter had turned a game they trailed twice into a rout, with a starting XI that had needed 45 minutes to find its rhythm suddenly overwhelming a tiring Udinese back three. Idrissa Gueye's stoppage-time goal for Udinese, set up by fellow substitute Vakoun Bayo, only adjusted the final margin; it did not change who had controlled the second half.

"These are our qualities and what we know how to do. We can score a lot of goals and keep a high level, so apart from the first 25 minutes where we didn't have the right energy, and Udinese did well to make the most of our attitude, we did well to react. We stayed in the game, we didn't want to lose, and I am pleased with that."

— Cristian Chivu, Inter manager

Chivu was just as candid about the flip side of a scoreline that saw his team concede three goals at home. "If I don't say I'm worried, then I am not a coach," he said, pointing to the pace at which Inter now play. "This is modern football, and with the intensity we put into our game we take on some risk, because we push a lot of players forward, and when we lose the ball we expose ourselves." It was, in his words, a matter of Inter never being a perfect team — only one capable of scoring its way past its own mistakes.

The second 2-0 deficit Inter have overturned in ten days

This was not the first time this month that Inter had let an early lead slip away and still won. On matchday 3, Napoli led 2-0 at San Siro by the 53rd minute through Matteo Politano and Rasmus Højlund, and Inter still ran out 3-2 winners with a Lautaro Martínez brace either side of a Marcus Thuram header. Falling behind twice by two goals inside a single week and winning both games points to a side that trusts its attack more than it worries about its own defending — a theme Chivu himself raised when he brought up the same fixture from last season, when Udinese beat Inter and Inter could not find a way back. "We've all aged a year," he said with a smile, "we lost that match and were unable to turn it around, so that has changed."

Recent run

Match facts

• 9' — James Abankwah (Udinese), assisted by Unai Gómez
• 16' — Jurgen Ekkelenkamp (Udinese), assisted by Keinan Davis
• 26' — Carlos Augusto (Inter)
• 35' — Nicolò Barella (Inter), assisted by Marcus Thuram
• 57' — Marcus Thuram (Inter), assisted by Andy Diouf
• 67' — Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter), assisted by Piotr Zielinski
• 79' — Ange-Yoan Bonny (Inter)
• 90+1' — Idrissa Gueye (Udinese), assisted by Vakoun Bayo

Line-ups

Where it leaves both clubs

Before this round, Guriball's table had Inter 2nd on nine points from three wins out of three, level with Roma on points but behind them on goal difference (+5 to +9). The win takes Inter to 12 points, and with Roma also winning on matchday 4 — 2-0 away at Torino — the two sides go into the international break tied at the top, both unbeaten through four rounds. Udinese, who had taken four points from their first two matches, remain in the bottom half of the table and now have conceded 27 shots in a single away game to show for a performance that started with two of the best quarters of an hour they have played all season.

Udinese's night was complicated before kick-off: Runjaic was already missing Oumar Solet and Nicolò Zaniolo to injury, and Jakub Piotrowski remains out after undergoing surgery for a cardiac arrhythmia. None of that explains the two goals they scored inside the first quarter of an hour, which came from a team playing with real intent — only the 75 minutes that followed, in which Inter scored five times and Udinese managed only Gueye's late reply to show for the rest of the game.

What's next

Both clubs head into the international break with contrasting emotions. Inter's reward for a fourth straight Serie A win is a heavyweight fixture the weekend after next: they travel to Roma's Stadio Olimpico in what is already shaping up as a top-of-the-table meeting between Serie A's two remaining perfect records. Udinese will look to tighten a defence that has now conceded five goals in a single match, after two changes of momentum let a promising evening in Milan slip away.