Two goals from Lautaro Martínez and a spectacular third from Romelu Lukaku earned Inter a 3-0 win over Milan in Sunday’s derby, sending Antonio Conte’s side clear at the top of Serie A.
Inter got off to the perfect start when Lukaku escaped down the right and crossed for his strike partner to head home after just five minutes. Inter remained dominant throughout the first half, especially on the break, with both strikers spurning good chances to double their side’s lead.
Milan’s best moment of the first period came when Alessandro Bastoni dithered in making a clearance, which was eventually charged down and Zlatan Ibrahimovic picked out Hakan Calhanoglu on the penalty spot. The Turkish playmaker turned his marker well but then mis-hit an easy through-pass to Ante Rebic, sinking to his knees in despair. Inter reasserted their control, with Milan Skriniar meeting a Christian Eriksen free-kick to send a powerful header just over the bar in the last action before the interval.
Milan came out purposefully after half-time and three stunning saves within a minute at the start of the second half from Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic kept his side in front. First he showed his reflexes to get down and parry a bullet header from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, then made himself big to beat away another header from this Swede, this time from point-blank range. Seconds later he leapt to tip a Sandro Tonali effort over the bar.
Those stops proved crucial when 10 minutes later Martínez finished a fine, flowing Inter attack to score his 13th league goal of the season and give his side some breathing space. Lukaku started the move, laying off to Achraf Hakimi, who darted inside to find Eriksen. The Dane killed the ball, paused a beat, and fed the onrushing Ivan Perisic, who squared first time for the grateful striker to tap home.
Not to be outdone, Lukaku made sure of a fourth successive league win for Inter with a wonderful goal in the 66th minute. After collecting a long ball, he swivelled to run at the heart of Milan’s defence, jinking left and rifling a low early shot inside Gianluigi Donnarumma’s near post.
After that Inter comfortably saw out the game, with the unimaginative hosts showing little sign of opening up a resilient Inter backline and Ibrahimovic cutting a largely isolated figure at the point of the attack. The win takes Conte’s league leaders to 53 points, four clear of second-placed Milan.
Atalanta sink Napoli to boost top-four hopes
Atalanta stormed to a 4-2 victory over Napoli to go fourth in the table and increase the pressure on the Napoli head coach, Gennaro Gattuso.
The main incident of note in a quiet first half saw the Atalanta manager, Gian Piero Gasperini, sent to the stands for complaining about his side not being awarded a penalty. It didn’t affect the hosts, who took the lead through Duván Zapata in the 52nd minute with a far-post header.
Piotr Zielinski volleyed in an equaliser for Napoli six minutes later, only for goals from Robin Gosens and the in-form Luis Muriel to put Atalanta in control. Gosens added an own goal in the 75th minute to give Napoli hope, but Cristian Romero secured victory for Atalanta with 10 minutes to play.
Elsewhere, Parma threw away a two-goal lead at home to Udinese to leave their survival prospects looking bleak. Andreas Cornelius and Juraj Kucka put the hosts 2-0 up at half-time, but Stefano Okaka and Bram Nuytinck struck for Udinese to leave Parma six points adrift of safety.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2NQ5WOw
via IFTTT
No Comment