ROME: Davide Frattesi scored twice and Lautaro Martinez added a third as Inter Milan consolidated second place in Serie A on Wedne­sday with a 3-0 away thrashing of 10-man Empoli, closing the gap with leaders Napoli to four points.

Europa League champions Atalanta climbed to third with a 2-0 win over lowly Monza, as Juventus again shed valuable points and dropped to fourth with a 2-2 home draw with Parma.

Resurgent Napoli are top of the table on 25 points after they beat AC Milan 2-0 on Tuesday but defending champions Inter kept pace when they overwhelmed Emopli who play­ed with 10 men after the half hour as Saba Goglichidze walked for a dangerous tackle on Marcus Thuram.

The game may have lacked the drama of Inter’s rollercoaster 4-4 draw with Juve on Sunday, but this time Simone Inzaghi’s side came away with all three points, against an Empoli side who struggle to score but had conceded even less, until now.

“It is a response to ourselves. In these two and a half days there were mixed feelings inside me,” Inzaghi told broadcaster DAZN. “Seeing a game like Sunday, there was something that didn’t add up to me, we deserved to win but we had to do more. We tried to recover, managing our forces is important because we are playing a lot and with people missing.”

Inter were unable to make the most of their numerical advantage in the first half, but it all changed once Frattesi got them off the mark five minutes after the break.

A cross to the back post was kept in play on the byline by a header from Matteo Darmian which fell to Frattesi and his deflected looping shot went in off the far post.

His second in the 67th came after a backheeled pass from Martinez in the area which Frattesi slotted home while Martinez’s 79th minute clin­cher came after a defensive blunder.

Juve twice came from behind to salvage a draw at home to Parma, maintaining their unbeaten record this season but slipping seven points adrift of Napoli and a point behind Atalanta.

Parma, who have won just once this season, took the lead in the third minute. After working the ball across the pitch from a corner kick, Adrian Bernabe’s cross into the box was nodded back across goal by Botond Balogh and an unmarked Enrico Del Prato headed into the roof of the net.

Weston McKennie equalised on 31 minutes when Timothy Weah whipped a ball into the area, steering his header past the dive of Zion Suzuki but Parma were soon back in front as Juve struggled to deal with the pace of the visitors.

Dennis Man collected a long ball in the area and pulled back the perfect pass for Simon Sohm to drill past Michele Di Gregorio and they held their lead until the break.

Juve’s unbeaten record was on the line but they pulled level again shortly after the interval. Khephren Thuram powered through from midfield before passing to Francisco Conceicao out wide and his cross was volleyed home by Weah from close range.

Parma created an opportunity late on, but Gabriel Charpentier was denied by Di Gregorio and in added time Juventus looked like fining the winner but Del Prato made a last-gasp block to deny a goal-bound effort from Kenan Yildiz.

“I think today we conceded too many restarts. At their goal kicks we were trying to bring the defender out to then be able to press and cause an error, but we didn’t succeed,” Juve manager Thiago Motta told broadcaster DAZN. “In the defensive phase we made a lot of mistakes.”

Atalanta overcame a plucky Monza with late goals from Lazar Sama­rdzic and Davide Zapp­acosta as the Bergamo based side climbed third on 19 points.

Udinese were beaten 3-2 by promoted Venezia, who trailed 2-0 before Joel Pohjanpalo converted a pair of penalties followed by a strike from Hans Nicolussi Caviglia to climb off the bottom of the table.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024