Age no obstacle for Edin Dzeko as Inter Milan striker targets more goals against Liverpool

A couple of weeks before his 30th birthday, Edin Dzeko scored what turned out to be the last of his 72 goals for Manchester City. It was against Liverpool, a typical Dezko strike in many ways — drifting between his markers, a half-turn and a powerful right-footed finish.

He had been under some pressure in the weeks before, for a lengthy barren spell in front of goal. By then, March 2015, he sensed his long, epoch-making time at the club was drawing to a close and that summer, City, assessing his age and thanking him for his key role in making them champions of England — twice in Dzeko’s time there — loaned him out to Roma.

So began the first renaissance of one of the most enduringly effective centre-forwards of his generation. He’s been a league champion in Germany and England with Wolfsburg and City, who were not used to finishing top of those leagues. He’s been a target man through an era when that type of striker has faded from fashion, but a target man who has always had extra range to his game.

Roma saw that quickly, and made Dzeko a permanent member of their staff when his loan from City ended. The following season, 2016/17, he was Serie A’s leading scorer.

Dzeko will turn 36 next month, and it could be said he is now enjoying his second renaissance. Last summer, he joined Inter Milan — who host Liverpool in the last-16 of the Champions League on Wednesday — given the burdensome responsibility of replacing the sold Romelu Lukaku as principal striker.

He was a cut-price replacement, hired by a club who had followed up winning the Italian title with a sudden, brutal sale of assets to service debts. Lukaku was joined at the exit by Achraf Hakimi, an excellent supplier of crosses to any target man. Antonio Conte, the