Inter Milan 0-0 Sampdoria

Inter Milan had Walter Samuel and Ivan Cordoba sent off in a bad-tempered clash at the San Siro.

Jose Mourinho managed to preserve his impressive home record as a manager but refereeing decisions once again took centre stage.

Inter found themselves down to nine men with 52 minutes to play following the dismissals of Samuel and Cordoba, while referee Paolo Tagliavento also sent off Sampdoria's Giampaolo Pazzini midway through the second half.

It would certainly not have been the way Mourinho wanted to prepare for Wednesday's Champions League clash with his former club Chelsea.

Despite the numerical advantage, Samp could not find their way past a resilient Inter side who secured Mourinho's 130th home league match without defeat, stretching across spells with Porto, Chelsea and Inter.

The result allowed Inter to extend their lead at the top of the Serie A standings to eight points, with Roma and AC Milan not playing until tomorrow.

Sampdoria ended the day in fourth, with a number of the teams below them playing tomorrow.

The visitors had the first real sight on goal as Pazzini set off on a mazy run before putting in a tantalising cross but there was no one there to meet it.

Inter slowly started to take hold of the game and had a number of chances to take the lead but Samuel, Dejan Stankovic and Wesley Sneijder all missed the target.

The hosts should have broken the deadlock on the half-hour mark following a great assist from Diego Milito who headed the ball to Samuel Eto'o, but the Cameroon international fired wide from 10 yards.

The match burst into life for all the wrong reasons moments later when Samuel was shown a straight red after his flailing arm caught Pozzi in the face.

There seemed to be clear intent on behalf of the Argentina defender but it sparked a mass confrontation between the teams with Inter players accusing Pozzi of making too much of the challenge.

Cordoba then received what was to prove a costly yellow as he was needlessly booked for encroachment when Reto Ziegler was attempting to take the resulting free-kick.

As tempers frayed, Pazzini was perhaps fortunate to see just a yellow for a petulant kick on Lucio who had come off the bench moments earlier and had not even been involved in the fierce arguments between the two teams.

Inter found themselves down to nine men in the 38th minute when Cordoba was shown a second yellow for barging straight into Pozzi.

It was the second time in three home games that Inter had two men sent off after the bad-tempered derby against AC Milan last month.

Home fans and players were left fuming and Tagliavento had to be given a police escort off the pitch at half-time.

Inter started the second half brightly and it was sometimes difficult to tell they were the team who were at a two-man disadvantage.

They felt the brunt of refereeing decisions once again 10 minutes after the restart when Eto'o was yellow-carded for diving.

Mourinho saw the funny side as whether in frustration with his player or the referee he turned away in fits of hysterics.

It was Sampdoria's turn to see red in the 73rd minute after Pazzini was handed a somewhat harsh second yellow card for a foul on Stankovic.

Rather than allowing Inter back into the game Samp appeared to grow following the dismissal and could even have taken the lead four minutes later with their first attempt on target of the second half.

However, Pozzi's header was too weak and Julio Cesar, who was enjoying one of his easiest games in goal, had a comfortable save to make.

Inter almost snatched the winner as Goran Pandev played a great ball across the box to Eto'o but Marco Storari pulled off a brilliant point-blank save to deny the former Barcelona striker.