Inter sweep Lecce aside to keep pace at top
LECCE: Inter Milan delivered a commanding performance as they cruised to a 4-0 victory at Lecce on Sunday to stay on the heels of Serie A leaders Napoli.
The result kept Inter second in the standings with 50 points, three behind Napoli and with a game in hand. Lecce sit fourth from bottom with 20 points.
With Napoli having opened up a six point lead following their 2-1 home win against Juventus on Saturday, Inter were determined to close the gap again and started aggressively.
Six minutes in, Marcus Thuram evaded a defender with a slick step-over before passing to Davide Frattesi, who volleyed into the net for Inter’s first goal.
After Inter had two goals disallowed for offside in quick succession, manager Simone Inzaghi was left visibly frustrated and was shown a yellow card for stepping outside his technical area while voicing his displeasure.
Lautaro Martinez made it 2-0 for Inter six minutes before the break, firing a left-footed strike from the edge of the box that soared into the top corner.
Inter continued to dominate following the interval, with Denzel Dumfries battling his way into a tight position near the goal and slotting the ball into the far bottom corner to make it 3-0.
The nightmare deepened for Lecce just three minutes later, as goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone, rushing out to intercept a through ball, tripped Frattesis legs in the process. Mehdi Taremi converted the resulting penalty with ease to make it 4-0 in the 61st minute.
With the win all but secured, Inzaghi made several substitutions as he opted to take off a number of key players.
Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer denied the hosts a consolation goal when he palmed away Ylber Ramadani’s long-range effort to preserve his team’s clean sheet.
“We approached the match brilliantly and it wasn’t easy because we got back at dawn after the match in Prague on Wednesday, we had two days and then another trip down here,” said Inzaghi. “But in two days we managed to plan an aggressive performance, and they did exactly what I asked.”
Meanwhile, AC Milan turned jeers to cheers as two goals in stoppage time led to a stunning 3-2 win of a chaotic lunchtime clash with Parma.
Trailing to what looked like being Enrico Delprato’s winner for Parma heading into added time, Milan triumphed thanks to late strikes from Tijjani Reijnders and Samuel Chukwueze, sending previously frustrated fans delirious with joy.
Nigeria forward Chukwueze’s bundled finish gave Sergio Conceicao’s seventh-placed team a huge boost ahead of a massive week, with Wednesday’s match at Dinamo Zagreb a chance to secure a top eight spot in the Champions League before the Milan derby.
However all is not well at Milan and fiery Conceicao almost came to blows with deposed captain Davide Calabria on the pitch, the pair being held back by coaching staff while the rest of the team celebrated with fans.
Calabria, who was replaced as captain by Mike Maignan earlier this month, brushed over the incident as being a “dressing room matter” while Conceicao cryptically said, “if your kids are behaving badly, you have to act”.
Conceicao also substituted star players Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez after a dismal display from his team in the first half which brought a chorus of boos from fans, whose long-standing discontent with American owners RedBird had threatened to bubble over in the 80th minute when Delprato forced home on the rebound.
Defeat was especially harsh for Parma who were left with nothing from an excellent performance and stay a point above the relegation zone, level with Lecce.
In the day’s later match, Fiorentina got their bid for Champions League football back up and running by winning a tetchy contest at Lazio 2-1 and snapping a six-match winless streak.
Raffaele Palladino’s side are sixth, three points behind fourth-placed Lazio thanks to early strikes from Yacine Adli and Lucas Beltran.
The Tuscans escaped with three points from a match which finished with both Palladino and Lazio coach Marco Baroni sent off and Pedro hitting the post in the final seconds after Adam Marusic pulled a goal back in stoppage time.
Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2025
