Marcus Thuram scored either side of halftime as Inter Milan cruised to a comfortable Champions League victory over Ajax.
The French attacker twice headed in from Hakan Calhanoglu corners to continue his impressive form at the start of the current season.
Thuram, 28, has already scored five goals in four games across all competitions this season, and his heroics have provided last season’s finalists with the ideal start to the league portion of the competition as they try to forget their thumping in the final by Paris St-Germain.
While there has been a change in the dugout, with former coach Simone Inzaghi leaving in the midst of that final catastrophe, new manager Cristian Chivu has played eight of the same players who started in Munich four months ago.
He was rewarded with a fluent and confident performance, with Thuram taking the spotlight.
The former Borussia Monchengladbach forward posed a constant threat throughout the game, more than compensating for the loss of strike partner and captain Lautaro Martinez, who was benched due to a back problem.
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Thuram had already fired wide and had a penalty decision reversed after the video assistant referee (VAR) detected him fouling home defender Youri Baas before the 22-year-old hauled him down in the box.
Had Ajax’s 20-year-old Belgian winger Mika Godts converted a golden opportunity for the hosts a little under two minutes before Thuram’s opening, the game could have taken a different turn.
However, he was well saved by Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer on the one occasion when the hosts got a clear shot at goal.
Inter will host Slavia Prague in their next Champions League match on Tuesday, September 30 (20:00 BST), while Ajax will travel to France to face Marseille on the same evening.
