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Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Maicon sealed Inter's 14th straight win over 10-man Sampdoria after Marco Materazzi was head-butted.
There was an odd sense of timing to this match, as the two sides had already met in this same stadium on Wednesday for the Coppa Italia semi-final, in which Inter ran out 3-0 winners. Samp had Pietro Accardi suspended, while Luca Castellazzi returned from injury.
The Blucerchiati last won this Serie A fixture with a 4-0 scoreline in March 1999, one of only nine home victories in 50 encounters.
It got off to an extremely fiery start, as within the opening seven minutes there was a red card. Gennaro Del Vecchio caught Julio Cesar with his trailing leg and Marco Materazzi rushed forward to complain. The Sampdoria midfielder stood up during the argument, butting the defender under his chin with the top of his head. A furious row broke out with teammates trying to calm down both players and Del Vecchio was sent off.
Inter hit the back of the net on 17 minutes when Castellazzi foolishly fumbled a Zlatan Ibrahimovic effort into the path of Adriano, but it was disallowed for a tight offside position.
Christian Maggio took advantage of two consecutive Maxwell errors to burst into the danger zone, but egotistically chose to shoot from an impossible angle rather than pass to the unmarked Francesco Flachi. A free kick was taken quickly for Fabio Quagliarella skimming the near post.
Now 10-man Samp were attacking at full force and Julio Cesar had his palms stung by a fierce Flachi free kick, then Materazzi was robbed by Quagliarella and used his strength to prevent an embarrassing goal.
Adriano had a shot charged down and Castellazzi beat away a rocket of an Ibrahimovic free kick that bounced right in front of the goalkeeper. As the move continued, Adriano thumped wide from 35 metres.
Inter broke the deadlock on 38 minutes. Ibrahimovic attempted a spectacular scissor-kick and missed the ball, but as the cross came back in from the other side, his brave header slotted under the bar. Unfortunately, he also struck Giulio Falcone's head and both players required treatment.
Luis Figo came on for Dejan Stankovic at the break and Samp continued to push forward with Quagliarella's effort going just wide.
There was controversy on 54 minutes when Maxwell pushed Maggio as both ran into the area, but the referee gave the free kick for the first contact outside the box with quite a delay on the whistle. From the resulting set-piece, Flachi curled past the near post.
Materazzi wanted a penalty for his diving header and clash with Luigi Sala, but the referee waved play on. Falcone flew to take the ball off Ibrahimovic's head from six yards.
Inter put the result beyond doubt on 75 minutes. Ibrahimovic pounced on Sala's error and threaded through for Maicon to tap in from close range.
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