MILAN: Internazonale’s Mehdi Taremi scored his first goal for his new club and provided two assists to help them secure a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade in their Champions League clash at the Stadio Meazza in San Siro.

Hakan Calhanoglu opened the scoring with a superb first half free kick, before Taremi’s tenacity set up further goals for Marko Arnautovic and Lautaro Martinez as the Iran forward fed off errors in defence from the visitors.

The 32-year-old Taremi, who joined as a free agent in July after leaving Porto, then converted a penalty late on to seal a superb night as Inter added to the point they earned in their Champions League opener at Manchester City.

Red Star will feel three of the goals were preventable having been caused by slip-ups at the back and they did have some half-chances of their own, but slipped to a second successive loss in the league phase of the competition.

Inter led after 11 minutes thanks to a sumptuous free kick from Calhanoglu, who curled his shot in off the post from 25 yards, leaving Omri Glazer in the Red Star goal with no chance.

Inter had the ball in the net on two more occasions in the first half, but Arnautovic and Denzel Dumfries were adjudged offside, while later Henrikh Mkhitaryan blazed over the bar from close range.

Inter doubled their advantage just before the hour-mark as former AC Milan midfielder Rade Krunic was robbed of possession just outside his own area by Taremi, who slipped the ball through to Arnautovic to side-foot home from 10-yards.

Martinez came off the bench to seal the points as the hosts profited from another defensive error. This time Taremi took advantage of a heavy touch from centre back Uros Spajic and fed the Argentine forward for a simple finish.

Inter were awarded a penalty when Vanja Drkusic felled Martinez in the box and Taremi converted the spot-kick with ease to cap an excellent night.

Inter are at Young Boys on Oct. 23 in their next Champions League fixture while Red Star travel to Monaco a day earlier.

Clinical Boniface earns Leverkusen 1-0 win over Milan

LEVERKUSEN, Germany, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Bayer Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface netted a second half goal to earn a 1-0 home win over AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday, giving the German side a perfect start to their campaign while the Italians are still without a point.

Bundesliga champions Leverkusen are on six points after they beat Feyenoord 4-0 in their opening game, while Milan lost 3-1 at home to Liverpool in their first match of the competition.

The only goal at the BayArena came six minutes after the break when Boniface fired home a rebound after Milan keeper Mike Maignan had parried a shot from Jeremie Frimpong.

It was no more than the home side deserved after an opening half in which they had the majority of possession and chances but could not find a way past Maignan, while Milan struggled to get a foothold in the game.

The goal spurred the visitors into action and they threatened to find an equaliser as they pinned Leverkusen back for long periods of the second half, but they fell to their second defeat in their first two games of the competition.

Leverkusen had two early chances in the opening minutes with Maignan saving from Boniface and then keeping out Piero Hincapie’s header from the resulting corner.

The hosts surged forward at every opportunity, and thought they had found a way through when Boniface had the ball in the net but Frimpong was offside when he collected a pass on the wing to send in the cross.

Maignan kept Milan in the game, saving from Alex Grimaldo and Florian Wirtz, with Frimpong guilty of wasting chances on the rebound on both occasions, but Boniface made no mistake when his opportunity came.

Grimaldo’s backheeled pass set up Frimpong for the shot which Maignan again managed to get a hand to but Boniface had the simplest of chances from close range and Leverkusen were ahead.

Milan manager Paulo Fonseca said before kickoff that he did not want to risk Alvaro Morata from the start but with his side searching for an equaliser the Spanish striker was sent on for Tammy Abraham in the 62nd minute.

Morata had the chance to make his entrance count when Theo Hernandez’s shot from distance took a deflection and bounced back off the crossbar. Morata met the rebound but his header went wide of the far post.

Milan had another late chance to snatch an equaliser but Leverkusen’s Lukas Hradecky saved a shot on the turn from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and the home side held out to take all three points.

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