Samuel Eto’o fires the first goal for Inter before two defensive lapses cost them the lead. Julio Cesar bobbles Arjen Robben’s shot and Mario Gomez makes him pay by hooking the ball into an empty net. Minutes later, Dejan Stankovic deflects Robben’s cross invitingly into the path of Thomas Mueller and the German flicking the ball over the spreadeagled Cesar.
Cesar makes up for it effecting a brilliant but risky save off Frank Ribery’s shot after the Frenchman is sent free after Andrea Ranocchia bites on the ball. At the other end Thomas Kraft brings down Stankovic for what appeared to be a clear penalty and a sending off. But the goalkeeper survives as the referee does not entertain Inter’s appeals.
Bayern come close as Gomez turns Ribery’s floated cross across goal towards the far post. Both Ranocchia and Mueller scramble with the centre back sliding in fractionally before to turn the ball away before it rolls over the goal line. The ball deflects off the German’s foot back to goal but fortuitously balloons off the upright and Cesar is able to collect.
Lucio gets into all sorts of trouble trying to finesse the ball away but succumbs to Mueller and Ribery’s pressure and is in danger of conceding a goal but the Frenchman is called offside. Cesar then spectacularly saves Gomez’s volley off yet another Ribery cross.
Inter’s equalizer comes after the newly introduced Phillipe Coutinho sends a long diagonal ball to Eto’o. With the Bayern defense trying to reset – the striker lays the ball off for Wesley Sneijder whose acutely angled shot finds the gap between Kraft and the far post.
With Bayern fading Inter comes close as Cambiasso, Coutinho, and Sneijder dominate the ball. The breakthrough comes after Eto’o, whose play making skills close to goal is vastly underrated latches onto a long ball, shrugs off an Inter defender, and cuts in to lay off a pass off to the arriving Goran Pandev who cracks the ball over Kraft.
Eto’o scored the first goal and had a hand in the other two. He made all the difference. The club has also regained its footing under Leonardo. Since taking over on 24th December 2010, the club has won 11 of its 14 matches and gained 34 points to pull it to second place, 5 points behind Milan.