On 20 May 2018, in the final round of 2017–18 Serie A, Inter beat Lazio 3–2 at Stadio Olimpico, which qualified them for the UEFA Champions League after a six-year absence.

[3] During the summer transfer window, Inter bought Radja Nainggolan from Roma and Lautaro Martínez from Racing Club, also signing Stefan de Vrij and Kwadwo Asamoah as free agents.

Thus, some new players are transferred via "loan with option to buy", including Matteo Politano from Sassuolo, Šime Vrsaljko from Atlético Madrid and Keita Baldé from AS Monaco.

Gagliardini drew first blood for the hosts by pouncing on a loose ball, and two minutes later on 16 minutes Inter doubled their lead through Matteo Politano who finished an inviting pass from Mario, one-on-one with goalkeeper Ionuț Radu who watched the ball roll past him into the centre-right of the net.

A long throw at the start of the second half allowed Gagliardini to score his second goal via a Radu save following a Perisic shot.

Mario scored in injury time to make the scoreline very convincing, a fine finish from just inside the penalty area after receiving the ball from Keita Balde.

Icardi scored the resulting penalty to double Inter's lead and this began a more amicable relationship between player and club.

[8] Perisic's finish near the right-hand bottom corner of the goal from a one-two with Icardi made it three in the second half and with ten minutes to spare despite Radu's block of a Gagliardini header from a Perisic corner was judged to have crossed the line by goal-line technology, giving the Italian central midfielder his second goal of the night.

An Icardi double and a Brozovic goal were enough to ensure the win over Lazio, a game in which Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic was outstanding.

Following several draws and losses and a poor start to the year 2019, which first saw a win in February, courtesy of Martinez's winner at Parma, Inter dropped out of the title race, and spent the rest of the season challenging for a place in the 2019-20 UEFA Champions League group stage.

Inter started their campaign by defeating Tottenham 2-1 after a great comeback including a late Vecino winner and then PSV Eindhoven were beaten 2-1 too in a nervy match.

In the defeat at Barcelona, Marcelo Brozovic's slide to the floor to block a Lionel Messi free-kick became a popular meme on social media due to the unusual nature of the tactic.