Hakan Calhanoglu breaks records with goal in Inter Cagliari draw

Hakan Calhanoglu is starting to hit records with his clinical penalty for Inter Milan in their Serie A draw against Cagliari.

Today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, highlight the Turkish international’s outstanding goalscoring season.

During the three-points-for-a-win era, there have only been three occasions in which an Inter midfielder has gotten into double figures in terms of goals in Serie A.

The previous two had belonged to Ivan Perisic.

Playing in a wide position, the Croat reached eleven goals during both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaigns.

And this season, Calhanoglu has hit that same total.

The former AC Milan midfielder’s effort against Cagliari yesterday was his eleventh league goal of the season.

The majority of Calhanoglu’s goals this season have come from the penalty spot.

The Turk has scored nine penalties in Serie A over the course of the campaign.

That is not to detract from the feat of Calhangolu hitting double figures, though. The 30-year-old’s absolutely ruthless consistency from the spot is remarkable in itself.

Calhanoglu’s penalty yesterday was one more example of his proficiency on penalty duty.

Cagliari keeper Simone Scuffet could not have done much more to save it. The keeper kept his composure and guessed the right way, timing his dive well.

Scuffet got down low quickly and had a big reach – this enabled him to get a touch on the ball.

But even with that excellent effort by the goalkeeper, Calhanoglu’s penalty simply had too much power, pace, and accuracy to be saved.

That is a testament to why the Turk is Inter’s clear first-choice taker.

Calhanoglu has also scored more goals from the spot than any player in one of Europe’s top five leagues this season.

And the 30-year-old is enjoying his most prolific season in front of goal since the 2013-14 campaign with Hamburg.