Inter opened the defence of their Serie A title with a scare before finding their rhythm, beating newly promoted Monza 4-1 at San Siro on Saturday evening in the first round of the 2026-27 season.
Hakan Çalhanoğlu gave the champions the perfect start, driving a shot in from range after just six minutes, but the lead lasted barely twenty. Gustavo Varela levelled for Monza in the 29th minute with a well-taken individual effort, and Cristian Chivu's side went in at the break level at 1-1 having looked, for long stretches of the first half, like a team still shaking off the summer.
Monza, back in the top flight after a season in Serie B and fielding a squad shorn of several injured and suspended players, will have taken real encouragement from that first-half showing under new coach Ivan Jurić, who was taking his first game in the Brianzoli dugout.
Whatever Chivu said at the break worked. Piotr Zieliński restored Inter's lead three minutes into the second half, lobbing goalkeeper Pizzignacco after the Monza stopper had come off his line following a cross from the left by Federico Dimarco.
From there Inter took full control. Francesco Pio Esposito, one of the club's own academy products, made it 3-1 in the 55th minute with an audacious back-heeled finish that had San Siro on its feet, and Yann Bisseck added a fourth on 63 minutes to complete a rout that felt a long way from the uncertain opening period.
The result means Inter began the title defence with all three points, if not with the fluency Chivu will want as the season develops. Ivan Jurić's Monza, for their part, can point to a competitive first half against the champions as a reasonable platform on their return to Serie A.
There was a personal subplot too: Lautaro Martínez started on his 29th birthday but could not add a goal to the celebrations, picking up a yellow card in a match that otherwise belonged to Inter's second-half substitutes and squad depth.
ONE's report on the match, headlined "picked up where it stopped: a big 4-1 for Inter over Monza," framed the result as a continuation of the champions' dominant recent form heading into the new campaign, despite the shaky start against newly promoted opposition.
