MILAN: Romelu Lukaku had the last laugh and goal as his Inter Milan side beat Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s AC Milan 3-0 in their biggest derby match in a decade to extend their lead at the top of Serie A on Sunday.

The game took place almost a month after a heated spat between the two star players.

Lukaku set up Lautaro Martinez for an early opener and sealed the result in the 66th minute with Inter’s third. Martinez had doubled his tally early in the second half, during Milan’s best spell of the match.

“Lukaku works a lot and always makes himself available for the team,” Martinez said. “He is a great person and a great player, we are happy to have him with us. I am convinced that he can still improve a lot.”

Coach Antonio Conte hailed a game “played to perfection” as Inter extended their advantage to four points over second-placed Milan in their quest for a first league title since their unprecedented treble under Jose Mourinho in 2010.

“Credit to the lads, they put in an extraordinary performance, carried out to perfection,” said Conte, bidding to end his former club Juventus’s quest for a 10th consecutive league title.

The stakes in the Milan derby were higher than they have been in the last 10 years. The last time Inter and Milan went into the Derby della Madonnina occupying the top two spots in the table was in 2011, when Milan were above Inter. The Rossoneri won that match and went on to win the league title the last team other than Juve to do so.

The match was played behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, but that did not stop thousands of fans gathering outside the stadium. Despite the restrictions supporters waited for the team buses to arrive, waving flags and singing, setting off smoke bombs, before the teams entered the stadium.

“The welcome the fans gave us at the stadium gave us goosebumps,” said Conte.

The match was even more highly charged because the last time the two sides met, on January 26 in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals, Lukaku and Ibrahimovic were involved in a heated confrontation that is currently under investigation by the Italian football federation.

It was Lukaku who helped Inter get off to the perfect start, with less than five minutes on the clock. His first cross was charged down by a great block from Milan defender Simon Kjaer but the ball came back out to Lukaku, who floated another cross in for Martinez to easily head into the top right corner.

Ibrahimovic threated with a back-heel flick after quarter of an hour following a scramble in the box but Samir Handanovic kept it out, the Inter keeper also pulling off a double save from the Swede after the break.

But Martinez broke through again in the 57th, finishing off an Ivan Perisic pull-back from the by-line in a move started by Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi.

Donnarumma denied Lukaku minutes later but the former Manchester United striker then burst through to score the third.

“A striker depends on the team’s performance,” said Milan coach Stefano Pioli of Ibrahimovic who limped off with calf cramps with 15 minutes to go.

“It’s been a difficult week but well get back on track. If you told us a year ago, or even just three months ago, that at this point of the season we would be second, we would have leapt in the air with joy.”

AS Roma remained third after drawing 0-0 at 10-man Benevento. The capital side are nine points below Inter and one point above Atalanta, who beat Napoli 4-2 to move into fourth.

Roma failed to take advantage against 15th-placed Benevento who played half an hour a man down after Kamil Glik’s sending off. They were also denied a late penalty which was awarded and then overruled after a VAR viewing.

In Bergamo, Atalanta moved fourth at the expense of Napoli in a game where all six goals came in the second half.

Colombian pair Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata both scored for the hosts with Robin Gosens scoring for his side and also an own-goal for Napoli, with Cristian Romero nodding in the fourth.

Napoli are now seventh, three points behind Atalanta who occupy the final Champions League place.

At the other end of the table, Udinese fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at 19th-placed Parma.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2021