Inter Milan's unbeaten start to the season came to an end as they were hammered 4-1 by Cagliari at the San Siro this afternoon.

The visitors opened the scoring in the 10th minute when Inter failed to deal with a long ball down the middle and Marco Sau capitalised to fire a strike past Samir Handanovic.

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Inter had a chance to equalise moments later, but after being slipped into the box, Rodrigo Palacio drilled his low effort straight at the keeper.

It did not take the hosts too long to level the scores and in the 18th minute Pablo Osvaldo was picked out by Palacio at the back post before sliding the ball into the net.

The hosts were then dealt a blow as captain Yuto Nagatomo was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in the space of three minutes.

Cagliari made their numerical advantage count almost immediately, as Albin Ekdal reacted quickly to fire the ball into the net, after Handanovic could only parry Daniele Dessena's powerful drive.

Ekdal grabbed his second of the match for the visitors five minutes later when he was picked out inside the box by Victor Ibarbo and placed a low shot into the net.

The visitors had a chance to score a fourth two minutes before half time when Sau was brought down inside the box by Nemanja Vidic, but Andrea Cossu saw his penalty saved by Handanovic.

However, they did manage to extend their lead just a minute later, as Ekdal fired home a loose ball from close range to complete his hat-trick.

After the break Osvaldo had an effort ruled out for offside, before Palacio saw his low strike kept out by Alessio Cragno.

The visitors continued to cause the Inter defence problems and Diego Farias almost made it five when he latched onto a ball over the top, before firing the ball just wide of the target.

Both teams struggled to create any more goalscoring opportunities in the closing stages as Cagliari comfortably saw out the match to claim the win and move off the bottom of the Serie A table.