FC Internazionale Milano 5-3 Udinese Calcio: Serie A Match Report, 14 September 2026

Eight goals, split four and four across the halves, and only the second half had a winner in it. FC Internazionale Milano 5-3 Udinese Calcio was 2-2 at the break, which means the champions scored three after it and conceded one more. Beyond that split the record is empty: no scorers, no minutes, no sequence.

Inter arrived second on nine points, having won all three opening matches with eight scored and three conceded. Udinese came in on four points from three: a 1-1 at home with Como, a 3-2 win at Monza, then a 1-2 home defeat by Lazio the week before. Thirty-seven points had separated the clubs in last season's final table — Inter champions on 87 with 89 goals, Udinese tenth on 50 with 45 scored and 48 conceded — and the scoreline is roughly what those records look like in the same match.

The four previous meetings had produced twelve goals between them and none had gone past five. This one produced eight on its own, three more than the highest of the four. The preview leaned on Udinese having scored in three of those four, twice at this ground, including the 2-1 they won here in August 2025. That held: they were level at the San Siro break and finished with three, the most any side has taken off Inter in this fixture.

Inter have twelve points from four and a goal difference of plus seven. Their three home matches this season read 4-1, 3-2 and 5-3 — eighteen goals, twelve of them Inter's. The attack that scored 89 last season has carried over; the defence that conceded 35 has not. Six conceded in four is the one figure that does not match the title-winning version of this club, and four rounds is too early to say whether that is a pattern or a run of open games.

Udinese have four points from four and a goal difference of minus two. Tenth place last season came with a negative difference too, so conceding freely while scoring is nothing new; five scored and ten conceded in a month is that profile drawn more sharply. Taking three goals off Inter in Milan and leaving with nothing is a recognisable Udinese evening — 45 goals last season did not stop them losing sixteen times.

Our pre-match call was Over 2.5 Goals at 1.55, rated medium confidence.

It was settled before half-time. Four goals by the interval cleared the line with a half still to play.

The case was the plain one and it held: the division's highest-scoring club at home, where both prior home fixtures had produced five goals, against a side whose matches averaged 2.45 goals last season and which had conceded in every fixture it had played. Medium was the rating because Inter had already won 1-0 at Cagliari when 1-0 was enough, and two matches is no sample for anything. Neither caution mattered.

One detail deserves marking down. We argued the goals would probably arrive late, pointing at two home games in which they had, and said a cautious opening was not evidence against the pick. Here half the total was on the board by half-time. The conclusion was right; that piece of the reasoning was not.

Verdict: won