Inter move to Serie A summit, while Napoli and Lazio suffer defeats

 

Serie A champions Inter Milan have consolidated their position on top of the log after defeating Cagliari on Sunday night at the San Siro Stadium.

The win takes Simone Inzaghi ‘s men to 40 points, a point above AC Milan, who secured a late draw away at Udinese on Saturday, and three points over Atalabnta that recorded a comeback win at Hellas Verona on Sunday.

Inter opened the goal account through Lautaro Martinez. Alexis Sanchez doubled their lead by Alexis Sanchez, who reacted to a sweet cross from Nicolo Barella to score his first Serie A goal of the season.

Hakan Canhanoglu got the third goal and his 6th of the season for the Nerazzurri from a brilliant individual strike.

A few minutes later, Lautaro Martinez got his brace through a sweet delivery from Nicolo Barella. The Argentine chest the pass down before slotting it past the goalkeeper.

Napoli, which had started the season on a good note, got a setback on Sunday, losing at home to Empoli.

The Empoli goal came through a fluke Patrick Cutrone’s effort to record their first win at the Diego Amado Maradona stadium since 2008.

They succeeded in upsetting a Napoli side missing Victor Osimhen, Kalidou Koulibaly, Fabian Ruiz, and Stanislav Lobotka.

Added to their problem was Piotr Zielinski, who suffered from respiratory problems, forcing Lorenzo Insigne to return earlier than expected.

Eljif Elmas’ effort from the edge of the area bounced off the top of the crossbar and Empoli’ Patrick Cutrone rolling pass across the face of goal for Nedim Bajrami hit the side-netting.

Chucky Lozano also called Guglielmo Vicario into action as the goalkeeper made a save at the near top corner while a typical Insigne right-foot curler flashed wide.

Mertens also threatened as his shot was charged down while Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s follow-up was beaten away by Vicario.

The visitors also had the chance to open the score, but David Ospina parried with his chest when Cutrone got away from Juan Jesus.

Napoli’s goal was ruled offside from Mario Rui’s free-kick as Juan Jesus got it in with a goalmouth scramble.

Matteo Politano, Insigne, and Federico Di Francesco also had their efforts on target.

Empoli would go on to break the deadlock in truly the most bizarre fashion.

Anguissa cleared a corner, but he nodded it onto the back of Patrick Cutrone’s head, and the ricochet at the near post took it into the net.

With efforts to equalize, luck was against the hosts as Andrea Petagna’s strike cannoned off the base of the upright.

In the other game, Sassuolo came back from a goal down to record maximum points against Lazio.

Mattia Zaccagni scored the opener for the hosts, who were unlucky to have at least secured a draw as

Meanwhile, Lazio also suffered a defeat at the hands of Sassuolo. They would have conceded more, but efforts from Domenico Berardi and Giacomo Raspadori hit the woodwork in stoppages.

The visitors took a surprise lead when Elseid Hysaj won the ball n midfield, sent Pedro down the right. The former Roma winger did a pull-back which found Mattia Zaccagni, who scored from 10 yards.

Berardi eventually restored parity for the hosts when he cut inside and took advantage of the tiny gap between Lazio bodies to curl left-footed into the far top corner from the edge of the area.

Sassuolo turned it around completely with a very similar goal as Raspadori fired in from Berardi’s pass.

Goals from Teun Koopmeiners and Aleksei Miranchuk completed a turnaround for Atalanta to beat Hellas Verona.

The hosts went into the lead when Cholito Simeone caught the defence napping to fire at the near post from the tightest of angles.

Atalanta restored parity as Giuseppe Pezzella stole the ball from Ivan Ilic inside the penalty area and allowed Miranchuk to score.

The revitalized Atalanta eventually took the lead when Teun Koopmeiners’ shot from distance took a huge deflection off Tameze to completely wrong-foot his goalkeeper.

 

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed