Jose Mourinho made a winning return to the Champions League as Inter Milan beat Panathinaikos 2-0.
Goals from Mancini and Adriano send Inter top of Group B
Jose Mourinho made a winning return to the UEFA Champions League as Inter Milan beat Panathinaikos 2-0 in Athens.
Efforts from Alessandro Mancini and substitute Adriano in either half saw the Italians go top of Group B as Werder Bremen and Anorthosis Famagusta shared a goalless draw in the other game.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic created both goals but fluffed his own chance to score in the 10th minute when he was played through one-on-one with keeper Mario Galinovic but shot well wide from 14 yards out.
Three minutes later, Ricardo Quaresma had a powerful long range effort tipped around the post by Galinovic.
Ibrahimovic then forced a stretching save from Galinovic on 18 minutes with a powerful shot from distance.
Opening goal
He then superbly set up the opening goal of the night for Mancini to slot away on 27 minutes, showing his power against the home defence to create the opening.
Moon then hit a decent long-range shot for the home side a minute later which was tipped over by Inter keeper Julio Cesar.
He then had another low strike from distance saved by the keeper, before almost getting the equaliser on 41 minutes when his shot from outside the box was deflected by the backing-off Marco Materazzi onto the bar.
After the break, Cleyton Silva shot just wide with his left-footed effort from the edge of the box on 52 minutes before Dimitris Salpigidis shot just wide five minutes later.
Free-kick
An Andreas Ivanschitz free-kick missed everyone and was only just repelled by Cesar on 69 minutes as the home side pressed for an equaliser.
But Inter substitute Luis Figo then crossed from the left to Mancini on the back post, but his volley was deflected by Simao.
Cesar then had to make a finger-tip save to push Lazaros Christodoulopoulos' low shot wide of the right post on 76 minutes.
But Inter sealed the points with a fine counter-attack on 85 minutes when Ibrahimovic found substitute Adriano with a great pass and the Brazilian made no mistake with a left-footed effort from just inside the box.
| Panathinaikos |
Team Statistics |
Internazionale |
| 0 |
Goals |
2 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 5 |
Shots on Target |
5 |
| 9 |
Shots off Target |
3 |
| 6 |
Blocked Shots |
1 |
| 7 |
Corners |
4 |
| 16 |
Fouls |
19 |
| 4 |
Offsides |
6 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 79.7 |
Passing Success |
82.4 |
| 34 |
Tackles |
23 |
| 85.3 |
Tackles Success |
78.3 |
| 46.4 |
Possession |
53.6 |
| 57.9 |
Territorial Advantage |
42.1 |
|
