Edgy Inter scrape into Champions League knockout round

Inter Milan stumbled into the Champions League knockout rounds with a nervy 1-0 victory over FC Twente at the San Siro here on Wednesday.

Argentina midfielder Esteban Cambiasso was the unlikely hero, scoring the winner on 55 minutes to keep Inter level on points with Tottenham at the top of Group A — but behind on head-to-head record.

Coming into the game off a run of three defeats and two draws, coach Rafael Benitez’s job was rumoured to be at risk if the reigning champions didn’t win.

Cambiasso said afterwards that he hoped the win could be a springboard for the club.

“It’s important because we’ve had some bad results recently, some we deserved, others we didn’t, but now we’ve qualified we can concentrate on the league and the Club World Cup,” said the match-winner.

“In the changing room we never had any doubts we’d bounce back. We knew we were in a difficult moment but we hope this result can give us tranquility and once we’re back to full strength, things can go much better.”

Twente have also been struggling of late, losing their last two league matches, and with both teams desperate for a win to kick-start their seasons, the game was an open and attacking affair.

Benitez made a surprise tactical change by playing top scorer Samuel Eto’o wide on the left, with Goran Pandev operating down the middle.

The first chance came after only three minutes as Wesley Sneijder found himself free and alone inside the six-yard box to meet Jonathan Biabiany’s pin-point cross but he headed wide.

Soon after Dejan Stankovic let fly from distance with the ball swerving in the air and deceiving goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov, who was relieved to see it dip just over.

It wasn’t all Inter, though, as Nacer Chadli picked out Bryan Ruiz seven yards from goal leaping above Javier Zanetti, but he got his header all wrong.

Sneijder then shuddered the bar with a 20-yard free-kick on 17 minutes with Mihaylov well beaten.

Pandev had a clear sight of goal when he was slipped in by Cambiasso but Mihaylov came out quickly to block his rushed effort before Eto’o curled an in-swinger from the left that Mihaylov clawed out from under his bar.

On the half hour the visitors had two sights of goal in quick succession.

Theo Janssen crashed a shot goalwards from 18 yards with power but Luca Castellazzi did well to hold on.

Moments later Chedli escaped down the left and chipped the on-rushing Castellazzi, but his effort went wide with Luuk de Jong screaming for a pass at the back post.

A mistake by Lucio gave de Jong another chance but his first touch was too firm and Castellazzi came out to smother.

The breakthrough came 10 minutes after the break as Sneijder’s free-kick took a double deflection and fell kindly to the unmarked Cambiasso to swivel and fire home inside the post.

Halfway through the second period it should have been two as neat interplay on the edge of the Twente box saw Eto’o slide in Sneijder, but his dinked shot sneaked just past the upright.

Stankovic should have closed out the game but skied embarrassingly high with the goal gaping.

Inter were enjoying most of the pressure but Twente gave them a warning 15 minutes from time as Denny Landzaat curled a 25-yard effort onto the bar with Castellazzi a spectator.

And they hit the bar again as Castellazzi tipped Janssen’s in-swinging corner onto the woodowrk as Inter clung on depserately.