Please Note: This article was written before Inter's Coppa Italia loss to Lazio on Tuesday evening. Joao Mario's progress 

As expected the Nerazzurri came away with the three points at San Siro to bottom side Pescara last Saturday, with a performance that was clearly enjoyed by the enthusiastic home crowd. 

 

Despite their three goal victory, the match confirmed what many observers have been stating all season and that is that Pescara aren’t actually as bad as their current position in Serie A suggests. Sure they were on the back foot for most of clash and their defence is rather leaky, but their individual attacking talent at times was excellent and they even had a goal disallowed early on after a Valerio Verre finish was ruled offside. 

 

In the lead up to that disallowed goal, there was some audacious play from Juventus loanee Grigoris Kastanos, who went on a mazy run before his strong shot was palmed into Verre’s path. Joining the Delfiini attack with Verre and Kastanos were Ahmad Benali and Jean-Christophe Bahebeck. 

 

Pescara, who are known for their keenness to field younger players, are sitting at the bottom of the table, but the performances of their younger players has been extremely promising at times this campaign, showing that the team definitely has the individual quality, it’s just the overall lack of experience which has been the main reasons behind their struggles. Combine this with their manager Massimo Oddo lacking top flight coaching experience and you can understand why they are bottom.  

On the Inter side of things, we witnessed three very well crafted goals, all which were similar close range finishes. It’s worth noting however, that on the Eder goal, Mauro Icardi was offside after being played in by Brozovic.That aside, the manner in which Inter were able to create and finish their chances was very pleasing for the onlooker and no doubt Pioli will also be delighted. 

Inter fans will also be mulling over the performance of Joao Mario. When given the chance, the Portuguese has always been superb, whether it’s his vision, passing, shooting, movement or creating goalscoring opportunities, he has always been heavily involved in the Nerazzurri’s play. His shot earned the corner from which the first goal came and he himself got in an excellent position to finish off the second, giving him two strikes from close range in as many games, proving his positioning is second to none.

 

MOTM: Joao Mario: 
 

Without doubt the Portuguese midfielder got my vote on Saturday, his constant creativity and ability to get into dangerous positions was a thorn in the side of Pescara and he capped his performance with a goal.