MILAN: Strikers Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez were unstoppable on Sunday as they were involved in all four goals in Inter Milan’s thrashing of Fiorentina 4-0 in Serie A.

The striking duo have propelled Inter to a flawless start with three consecutive wins, with no goals conceded.

They were dominant against a weakened Fiorentina side, who were still recuperating from their Thursday Europa Conference League play-off win against Austrian side Rapid Vienna.

“What we are doing very well at the moment is this determination not to concede goals, so all the players are sacrificing themselves to help out, including the strikers,” manager Simone Inzaghi said to DAZN. “We know this is only the beginning, but these are some very encouraging signs.”

Federico Dimarco delivered an excellent cross into the box and Thuram seized the opportunity to score his debut goal for the club in the 23rd minute with a powerful diving header.

Martinez doubled Inter’s advantage after 53 minutes when he was played through by Thuram at the edge of the box, with the unmarked captain easily putting it into the net.

Thuram was then brought down by Fiorentina goalkeeper Oliver Christensen shortly afterwards to give Hakan Calhanoglu a chance from the penalty spot that he didn’t waste.

Martinez capped off the scoring for Inter, who are yet to concede a goal, in the 73rd minute when he rammed home Juan Cuadrado’s inviting low cross.

Apart from Inter, AC Milan are the only other team to have won all three of their opening Serie A matches this season and both sides will be determined to keep that record intact when they meet on Sept. 16 after the international break.

Juventus are two points behind the pace setters in third after their 2-0 win at bottom team Empoli, who are still pointless three weeks into the season.

Danilo opened the scoring in the 24th minute in Tuscany after confusion at a corner and Federico Chiesa ensured Juve of the points with his second of the campaign eight minutes from the end.

“It was a good performance against an Empoli side that is not easy to play against,” Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri told Sky Sports Italia. “We allowed practically nothing at the back, but need to be calmer in the final third or with the final ball, as we were a bit too frenetic.”

Level with Juve in fourth are Lecce, who continued their unbeaten start to the campaign with a 2-0 win over Salernitana.

Roberto D’Aversa’s team collected their second win of the season thanks to Nikola Krstovic’s second goal since moving to southern Italy from Slovakia this summer and a stoppage time penalty from Gabriel Strefezza.

Nemanja Radonjic gave Torino their first win of the season with a superb stoppage-time strike which earned his team a 1-0 win over Genoa.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2023