Associated Press

MILAN (AP) — Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi scored his first goal for Inter Milan on Tuesday when he fired a penalty past Israel and Red Star Belgrade goalkeeper Omri Glazer, hours after his country fired rocket fire at Israel.

Taremi, who joined from Porto in the off-season, played a crucial role in Inter’s 4-0 win over Red Star in the Champions League, also assisting two more of his side’s goals.

Shortly before kickoff in San Siro, Iran fired at least 180 rockets at Israel – the latest in a series of escalating attacks in a years-long conflict between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East closer to regional war.

Taremi, 32, was not asked about the situation in his home country when interviewed by Italian television about his first goal for the Nerazzurri.

“I’m happy to score tonight and play well thanks to my teammates. It was great,” Taremi said.

“I’m so excited, it took me a while to score but I always tried to do my best in training, I fought for this moment and scored the goal tonight.”

Inter were already 1-0 up thanks to a great free kick from Hakan Çalhanoğlu when Taremi stole the ball from Red Star midfielder Rade Krunic in the 59th minute and rolled it across the penalty area for Marko Arnautovic to shoot it at the back post .

Twelve minutes later, Taremi prepared again when, despite a fall from Uros Spajic, he was able to get back up after a somersault on the ground and send Lautaro Martínez through.

Lautaro, one of Inter’s usual penalty takers, more than repaid the favor shortly afterwards when Vanja Drkusic awarded a penalty for a foul on him.

Lautaro handed the ball to Taremi and hugged the Iranian. Due to problems with the VAR communication system, Taremi had to wait a long time for his penalty, but kept his cool and fired the penalty past Glazer.

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