MILAN: Juventus ended Inter Milan’s perfect record in Serie A and took over top spot as Gonzalo Higuain’s superb late strike earned a 2-1 victory in the San Siro on Sunday.

The Argentine striker, on as a substitute, applied a clinical finish to a flowing move in the 80th minute.

Paulo Dybala had fired Maurizio Sarri’s Juve side in front after four minutes but Inter, who had won all six of their matches before Sunday’s clash, levelled in the 18th minute.

Matthijs de Ligt was adjudged to have handled in the area and Lautaro Martinez converted the spot kick, but coach Antonio Conte lost in his first meeting against his former club since leaving Juve to take over the Italy national team in 2014.

“Juve is in another category from all points of view, we cannot compare to them,” said Conte, who led the Bianconeri to the first three of their eight successive titles. “The gap is there and it is important. We have won six games bringing the car to 200 miles per hour and we will try to do it again.”

Juventus moved top with 19 points to Inter’s 18 and it was a deserved victory in an absorbing contest.

“Overtaking [Inter] at this time has little meaning, what matters is the performance of personality and character against a strong team, which had always won up to this moment,” Sarri said. “We entered the game with a good approach, and we deserved to win.”

Juve got off to the blistering start as Miralem Pjanic floated a ball over the top for Dybala to run onto and slot past the outstretched hand of Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

Inter recovered from conceding early and after equalising could have gone ahead when Martinez forced Wojciech Szczesny into a great save with a powerful cross shot.

But Juve carved out the best chances with Cristiano Ronaldo denied by keeper Samir Handanovic and then had a goal ruled out for offside before the break.

Sarri sent on Higuain and Rodrigo Bentancur as Juve chased a winner in the second half and the changes worked wonders.

Just when it was beginning to look as if the sides would have to settle for a point, Juve worked the ball forward and, after Ronaldo and Bentancur exchanged passes, Higuain was freed to slot home the winner in lethal fashion.

“It was a great match for Juventus,” Higuain, who replaced Federico Bernardeschi, said. “Inter came from six victories but we played with great character and determination and luckily we managed to bring it home.”

Atalanta have 16 points in third after their impressive start continued with a 3-1 home victory over Lecce.

Duvan Zapata opened the scoring in the 35th minute when he punished a defensive mistake and then combined well with Alejandro Gomes who made it 2-0 before halftime. Robin Gosens added a third early in the second half.

Fourth-placed Napoli, on 13 points, were held 0-0 at Torino while AS Roma, fifth with 12, drew 1-1 at home to Cagliari.

Roma stay a point ahead of city rivals Lazio, who drew 2-2 at Bologna with Serie A top scorer Ciro Immobile getting both goals for the visitors, to bring his tally to seven goals in as many games.

In Tuscany, Nikola Milenkovic nodded in the only goal after 72 minutes to give Fiorentina their third consecutive win as Udinese fell to their fourth defeat in seven games.

Fiorentina are eighth with Udinese a point above the relegation zone.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2019