PLZEN, Czech Republic: Edin Dzeko and Denzel Dumfries were on target as Inter Milan beat 10-man Viktoria Plzen 2-0 away for their first win of the Champions League season on Tuesday.
Inter made amends for last week’s 2-0 home defeat by Bayern, who are playing Barcelona later on Tuesday.
In Plzen, Dzeko opened the scores after 20 minutes during which the hosts had barely crossed the half-way line.
The 36-year-old Bosnian beat goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek with a low shot to the far post after Joaquin Correa had found him on the left side of the box.
It was Dzeko’s 10th goal against Plzen in different competitions including two hat tricks he had scored as an AS Roma player in 2016 and 2018.
Plzen, beaten 5-1 at Barcelona last week, had little to offer, and their chances suffered a lethal blow on 60 minutes when midfielder Pavel Bucha was sent off after hitting Nicolo Barella’s shin with his spikes.
Ten minutes later, Dzeko sprinted down the pitch on a counter-attack and picked out an unmarked Dumfries who beat Stanek at the far post again.
Stanek kept the hosts’ chances alive as he denied Dzeko each side of half time and cleared Robin Gosens’s header at the post after the break.
Inter host Barcelona in their next Champions League game on October 4 while Plzen travel to Bayern.
