Milan, Nov 3: 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.
Inter remains top of Group B and now only needs a point to progress to the next round after CSKA Moscow was held to a goalless draw at Trabzonspor. Lille is bottom, with just two points from four games.
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.
With both sides struggling to carve out goalscoring opportunities, Sow shot from distance in the 35th minute but his effort flew harmlessly wide.
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.
However, Inter played out the remaining minutes to inflict Lille's first away defeat in 14 games in all competitions.
