Two Venezia own goals sink brave hosts as Inter seize top spot

Venezia had the ball in the net, off the woodwork and inches from goal all afternoon, yet it still lost 0-2 to Internazionale without a single one of its own players finding the target. At the Pier Luigi Penzo, it took two home defenders to finish the job for Inter to walk away with all three points: an own goal from Matias Moreno in the 79th minute and another from Redouane Halhal two minutes later settled a match that, up to that point, Venezia had managed to make uncomfortable.

The hosts did have their moment of glory, only to see it taken away. In the 28th minute, with the score still level, Lion Lauberbach put the ball in the back of Inter's net, but VAR stepped in and the goal was ruled out. It was the hottest moment of a first half in which Venezia, far from sitting back, created more than expected: Kike Perez and Lauberbach himself tried their luck from inside and outside the box, and Akor Adams also had a header that sailed just over the bar. The first half ended 0-0, with Inter controlling possession but unable to find a breakthrough.

How the deadlock broke

The second half followed the same script: Inter dictated the pace, Venezia defended and looked to hit on the counter, while Francesco Pio Esposito, Hakan Calhanoglu and Nicolo Barella came on to add fresh legs to the visitors' attack. Marcus Thuram tested the keeper several times without luck, including a shot that grazed the crossbar in the 74th minute. The pressure eventually paid off in the least expected way: from a corner in the 79th minute, the ball ended up in Venezia's own net off Matias Moreno, and just two minutes later, from another corner delivery, it was Redouane Halhal who turned the ball into his own goal. Two set pieces engineered by Inter, finished off by Venezia's own defensive errors, were enough to settle the match.

The numbers behind the control

Possession and shot totals reflect what played out on the field: Inter held the ball for nearly two thirds of the match and generated more attacking volume, though Venezia was more clinical with the little it had.

According to our own xG estimate based on the match's shots, Internazionale generated 2.198 expected goals to Venezia's 1.546. The gap is not huge, and in fact the hosts had more shots on target (4 to 2), which confirms that the final result was tighter in terms of scoring chances than the scoreline suggests: two own goals ended up tilting a balance that, at times, the run of play had kept fairly even.

Before kickoff, our model projected an Internazionale win at 67%, against 13% for Venezia and 20% for a draw, with expected goals of 2.42 for the visitors and 1 for the hosts. The final result matched that forecast at its core, a clear away win, though the path to get there, with a disallowed goal and two own goals, was hardly the one anyone would have drawn up.

What it means in the standings

The win leaves Internazionale atop the table with 25 points from 9 games played, on a record of 8 wins, 1 draw and no losses. Venezia, on the other hand, sits near the bottom of the standings with just 3 points from 9 outings, the product of a single win and eight defeats. The gap between the two sides in the table now stands at 22 points, a reflection of the two starkly opposite campaigns they are having. For Venezia, the match leaves the sense that it competed for more than the scoreline shows; for Inter, it is another win that keeps its near perfect run intact, save for that one draw on the season.