MILAN: Lautaro Martinez made sure that Inter Milan kept pace with Serie A leaders Napoli by netting the Italian champions’ only goal in Sunday’s 1-0 win at AS Roma.

Argentina striker Martinez lashed home his fourth goal of the season in all competitions on the hour mark after a poor clearance from Zeki Celik to give Inter a hard-fought win at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

Inter are now second in the table with 17 points, two behind Napoli, 1-0 winners at Empoli, as Italy’s top four all won this weekend, with a huge match against Juventus at the San Siro coming up in a week’s time.

Before that Inter will try to continue their positive start to their Champions League campaign in Bern, where Simone Inzaghi’s side will take on Young Boys potentially without Hakan Calhanoglu and Francesco Acerbi who both forced off with injuries in the first half.

Inter will however be buoyed by a solid performance in the Italian capital which could have easily ended with a bigger win as Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar did well to charge off his line and keep out Marcus Thuram and Denzel Dumfries.

“The boys played well... once we broke the deadlock we had chances to score again and should have,” said Inzaghi to DAZN. “I’m very happy with what the boys showed me today.”

Roma meanwhile are lagging behind in 10th following a second league defeat of a what is already a troubled season for the capital club.

Roma coach Ivan Juric defended his team’s performance despite the loss.

“I think we started too timid, I didn’t like the first 15 minutes, but after that we did really well until the goal. The goal was just an accident and you pay a heavy price for that at this level,” he told DAZN.

“We had a lot of chances, but we also made too many technical errors and that was a gift to Inter. We definitely need to raise the quality level in the final third and that will make us more effective.”

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s penalty was the difference between the sides as Napoli laboured to victory at Empoli. their fourth straight win in all competitions.

Empoli, who had only conceded four goals in their previous seven matches, proved stubborn opponents for a Napoli side which never really got going, until a foul by Faustino Anjorin on Matteo Politano gave them a lifeline.

Kvaratskhelia tucked away the spot-kick in the 63rd minute, Napoli’s only shot on target over the 90 minutes in front of thousands of enthusiastic travelling supporters.

Fiorentina cruised to a dominant 6-0 victory at Lecce on Sunday, marking the first time they have scored six goals in an away Serie A match since 1966, to move up to fifth and six points behind Napoli.

Braces from both Danilo Cataldi and Andrea Colpani drove Fiorentina to a thumping away win which also featured strikes from Lucas Beltran and Fabiano Parisi.

Fiorentina were helped by Antonino Gallo being harshly sent off for fouling Dodo with the score 2-0, the offence considered the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity despite the presence of other defenders.

Level on points with Fiorentina in sixth place are Atalanta who eased to a 2-0 win at bottom side Venezia thanks in large part to in-form striker Mateo Retegui.

Italy attacker Retegui helped Mario Pasalic open the scoring early on and then sealed the points two minutes after the break with a delightful chipped finish.

Retegui, who only signed for Atalanta after Gianluca Scamacca suffered a serious knee injury before the start of the season, leads the Serie A scoring charts with eight goals.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024