MILAN: Walter Samuel and Diego Milito were on target to give Inter Milan a 2-1 victory over Lille in the Champions League Wednesday, which leaves the Italian side on the brink of qualifying for the knockout stages.
Samuel struck in the 18th minute and Milito doubled his side's lead in the 65th, shortly after missing a golden opportunity.
Lille never really threatened but set up a nervy finish when Tulio De Melo took advantage of a mix-up in the Inter defense to fire home with seven minutes remaining.
However, the French side could not get a second and slipped to its first away defeat in 14 games in all competitions.
Claudio Ranieri was delighted with the result, which leaves his team top of Group B and only needing a point to progress to the next round after CSKA Moscow was held to a goalless draw at Trabzonspor.
"It wasn't an easy game because Lille have not lost away for 13 games and this was a last chance for it to kickstart its Champions League campaign," Ranieri said. "So I think we won well and it was an important victory for my team.
Inter is flying in Europe, in contrast to its domestic form, with Ranieri's team languishing in 17th spot after losing five of nine games.
"The squad are fighting every day in training to push themselves to the level we should be at," Ranieri said. "I think in the Champions League we've had that bit of luck that we haven't had in Serie A.
"The experience of these players is very important. They're Champions League winners, World Cup winners. We're not doing well but there's always the desire to do well and show that they're still good. We still have the fight, still have determination."
Back-to-back defeats to Inter have hit Lille's hopes of progressing. The team is bottom of the group, with just two points from four games.
However, coach Rudi Garcia is still hopeful of beating CSKA and Trabzonspor to second spot.
"The good news of the night is that we are still in with a chance," Garcia said. "With two wins we'll progress. It's now been two defeats against Inter and they've both been fairly undeserved. We've shown we're better than the other two teams in the group. We know now what we have to do these next two games and we still hope to qualify."
Inter made four changes from the team which won in France. Luca Castellazzi replaced first-choice goalkeeper Julio Cesar, who is out injured with a thigh strain. Maicon suffered a similar problem in the 2-1 loss to Juventus Saturday and has been ruled out for a month.
Milito, Dejan Stankovic and Samuel came in in place of Yuto Nagatomo, Giampaolo Pazzini and Maicon.
And Milito had his side's first chance with less than two minutes on the clock. The striker raced into the box and lofted a shot over Lille goalkeeper Mickael Landreau, only to see the ball come back off the crossbar.
Lille settled down after that opening scare but struggled to create anything of note.
In the eighth minute Mauro Zarate tried his luck from distance with a low crisp shot, but it had too little pace on it and Landreau got down easily to save.
Lille's first decent effort came seconds later when Benoit Pedretti fired wide of the right upright from outside the box.
The visitors should have done better when Eden Hazard — who revealed Tuesday that Inter tried to sign him in the summer — released Moussa Sow with a delicious through ball, but the Senegalese striker stumbled, allowing the Inter defense to catch up with him and mop up the danger.
Inter came close to breaking the deadlock in the 18th minute when Zarate managed to release a snap shot from close range which Landreau could only parry, but it crept just the wrong side of the post for the Italian outfit.
However, from the resulting corner, Samuel stole in unmarked to head Inter into the lead.
Garcia feels it was that mistake that ultimately led to his side's downfall.
"We played well but we did a mistake for Inter's first goal and then, once it was in front, Inter knew how to control the game," he added. "It had enough experience in its defence to prevent us getting an equaliser.
"Also we lacked pace in the final third, but that's not surprising as we played three days ago while Inter had a day extra to recover."
Inter almost doubled its lead shortly before the break as Zarate performed a lovely feint in the box to round his marker, only to shoot straight at Landreau.
The home side went even closer at the start of the second half as Milito missed a glorious chance. Lucio beat the offside trap to flick Wesley Sneijder's free-kick onto the Argentina striker who blazed over from six yards, with the goal gaping.
Inter was almost made to instantly rue that mistake as Hazard whipped in a fierce, curling effort which sailed narrowly wide of the right upright.
Milito was not about to make that same error twice and when, in the 65th minute, Javier Zanetti found him in a great position, he tapped the ball into the open goal from close range.
Lille never really threatened and it looked like Inter was about to secure a comfortable win, until a lapse in the 83rd minute.
A mix-up between Lucio and Stankovic saw the ball fall to De Melo, who rounded the onrushing Castellazzi and fired home.