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Hernan Crespo secured yet another Inter victory just seconds after stepping on to the field, but after seeing their penalty saved, Messina are mathematically relegated.
This was not the fixture the Sicilians were hoping for at this stage of the season. Eight points from safety with just 12 to play for, they had all but given up on avoiding relegation and welcomed the Scudetto winners still in party mode. Although Bruno Bolchi got a point on his debut to end a run of seven straight defeats, it would take a miracle to keep them up, especially with top scorer Christian Rigano' and Enrico Morello suspended.
Marco Zoro was given the captain's armband, a moving gesture in the match where last year he threatened to walk off the field after receiving racist abuse from a section of the Inter fans. Roberto Mancini rested several stars ahead of Wednesday's Coppa Italia Final with Roma and welcomed Adriano back from a two-match ban.
Inter's Scudetto hangover seems to have hit, as they had a very sluggish start and Francesco Toldo almost let a weak Alessandro Parisi effort squirm through his fingers.
Messina felt they deserved a penalty for Fabio Grosso's handling offence, but the referee waved play on.
Toldo did well to parry a Roberto D'Aversa strike from distance and an Arturo Di Napoli lob proved dangerous.
Inter only threatened in the first half through Alvaro Recoba set-pieces, one going straight for goal, the other nodded wide by Mariano Gonzalez.
Recoba and Olivier Dacourt skimmed the upright after the break, then Il Chino sent Mariano Gonzalez one-on-one with the goalkeeper only to incredibly fire wide of the near post.
But Messina were still very much in the running as Vincent Candela's half-volley whistled past the post with Toldo stranded.
The referee awarded a penalty for the Sicilians as Marco Andreolli used his arm to block an Andrea Giallombardo cross. A scuffle broke out with several Inter players arguing, above all Luis Figo and Nicolas Burdisso, but Di Napoli eventually took the kick only to see it saved by penalty specialist Toldo.
You can't waste chances like that and Inter took the lead moments later. Hernan Crespo made his comeback from injury and scored with his first kick of the game! He replaced Santiago Solari and as the free kick was taken by Figo and nodded on by Burdisso, Crespo stuck out a foot to poke the ball into the bottom far corner.
Figo skipped past two defenders and fired just wide of the far post and Patrick Vieira also made his comeback, but blasted off target from eight yards.
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