If football is a game of fine margins, they don’t come finer than Inter Milan’s winner against Monza on Saturday night.

In a desperate attempt to block Lautaro Martinez’s header, Giorgos Kyriakopoulous deflected the ball towards his own goal. 

Monza keeper Stefano Turati looked to have done enough to prevent it from crossing the line with a stunning save, but the goal-line technology had other ideas.

The ball was in by millimetres and Inter’s title charge remained alive by the barest of margins, both on the night and in the table where the reigning Serie A champions lead Napoli by a point, with Atalanta two points further adrift.

After drawing in Naples a week ago and a solid 2-0 win at Feyenoord in the Champions League on Wednesday night, Monza’s visit looked to be the ideal fixture to draw breath for the Nerazzurri. Instead, it proved to be anything but.

Serie A’s bottom dwellers arrived at the San Siro on the back of scoring twice and conceding 14 goals in their last four away fixtures, but found themselves two goals to the good with 44 minutes played courtesy of Samuele Birindelli and Keita Balde.

Marko Arnautovic scored his second goal in the past seven matches to pull one back on the stroke of half-time, before Hakan Calhanoglu equalised midway through the second half. Then came the own goal and with it a major sigh of relief for Simone Inzaghi.

“We put in a tremendous second-half performance,” the Inter manager said.

“We stayed together and kept our heads. The substitutions made a difference, the lads were outstanding and earned this vital win.”

As concerning as it would’ve been for Inzaghi to see his side go two goals down at home to a team destined for Serie B, the manner of the comeback against Monza will have given him confidence going into the game with Feyenoord this week.

Inter are Italy’s only remaining representative in UEFA’s premier competition, and for the sake of the country’s coefficient and their battle with Spain for a fifth Champions League spot, Inter need to advance.

Whereas Inter’s city cousins AC Milan left Rotterdam with a defeat in the previous round, the Nerazzurri showed how the job was done, leaving with a 2-0 win.

A deft finish from Marcus Thuram, followed by a howitzer of a strike from Lautaro Martinez, secured the win. And this eases the pressure on Inzaghi’s men going into the second leg somewhat.

A packed San Siro will be on hand to help Inter secure passage to the next round and, very likely, a meeting with Bayern Munich. But all minds will need to focus on seeing off the Dutch side in Milan.

Considering Inter’s Scudetto ambitions and Inzaghi’s penchant for rotating, we could see some changes made for the Feyenoord game.

Looming on the horizon is a massive title showdown with Atalanta on Sunday evening in Bergamo, and this will influence Inzaghi’s thinking on Tuesday.

“Playing so many matches in quick succession is a real challenge,” he said on Saturday night.

“We need to keep working hard, knowing that the road ahead will be full of obstacles.”

Martinez and Stefan De Vrij are two who are likely to be on the bench, with the pair suffering from muscle fatigue. Nicolo Barella will also be rested with a view to Atalanta, while Mehdi Taremi will be paired with Thuram in attack.

Nicolas Zalewski, Piotr Zielinski, Federico Dimarco and Matteo Darmian are all out, leaving Inzaghi somewhat short on full-backs. Therefore there’ll be no rotation, with Denzel Dumfries and Carlos Augusto certainties to start.

Inter have already pocketed some €86m from their European run this season. Advancing to the final eight would bring in a further €12m. With the club’s debt still high, the extra money is needed.

On the easier side of the draw, Inter have every reason to believe they could get past Bayern to set up a potential meeting with Barcelona in the semi-final. There is certainly further opportunity to bring in more revenue.

Inter are still in the hunt for three trophies, and this has pushed Inzaghi’s squad to the limit. The oldest side in Serie A, the injuries are beginning to pile up and fatigue is affecting performances, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan in particular coming in for criticism.

Yet Feyenoord still have to be seen off on Tuesday. They can’t be taken lightly despite the two-goal advantage. 

Inter have only lost five games from 22 against Dutch sides in the Champions League. Italy will be hoping there won’t be a sixth.