MILAN (Reuters) -Inter Milan’s Hakan Calhanoglu maintained his incredible penalty record when his spot-kick secured a 1-0 victory for the Italians over Arsenal in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Neither side had conceded a goal in their opening three games in the competition but Arsenal’s defence was finally breached in unfortunate fashion on the stroke of halftime after a harsh handball decision against Mikel Merino.
Calhanoglu has now converted 19 out of 19 penalties in all competitions since joining Inter.
Arsenal laid siege to the Inter goal in the second half with Kai Havertz denied by home keeper Yann Sommer and having another effort deflected just wide, but Inter defended superbly to move to 10 points from four games.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal had 14 goal attempts in the second half but lacked creativity and are now outside the top eight automatic qualifiers for the knockout phase with seven points.
The first meeting between the clubs for 21 years began with Inter on top and they were denied an early goal when Denzil Dumfries thumped a ferocious shot against the crossbar.
Calhanoglu then went close before the game turned into a cagey affair with neither side taking risks.
Arsenal had looked comfortable but were cursing their luck when Merino was adjudged to have blocked a flick-on by Mehdi Taremi and Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs pointed to the spot.
A VAR check could not save Arsenal and there was never any doubt that penalty wizard Calhanoglu would beat David Raya.
Inter were content to soak up pressure in the second half with Arsenal lacking the invention to break them down.
Arsenal have now won only two of their last six games in all competitions although the sight of captain Martin Odegaard coming off the bench late on after a lengthy injury absence offered a silver lining for the travelling fans in the San Siro.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond and Clare Fallon)
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