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 Roma.
Argentina striker Martinez lashed home his fourth goal of the season in all competitions on the hour mark to give Inter a hard-fought win at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Inter remain two points 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.
Roma meanwhile are lagging behind in 10th following a second league defeat of a what is already a troubled season for the capital club.
The match began in a strange atmosphere as Roma’s hardcore fans stayed outside the ground for the first 15 minutes in protest at the direction of the club under billionaire American owner Dan Friedkin.
Fans are still unhappy about idol Daniele De Rossi being sacked last month and frustrated by the management of Roma, who last qualified for the Champions League in 2018.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia struck the only goal, and his fourth of the season, from the penalty spot in the 63rd minute to give Napoli their fourth straight win in all competitions.
Empoli beat Napoli home and away last season and their victory in Naples last November cost Rudi Garcia his job as coach, as a disastrous league title defense ended with southern Italy’s biggest club in 10th.
And the hosts were the better team for large portions of the match, with Kvaratskhelia’s winning spot-kick Napoli’s only shot on target in front of thousands of enthusiastic traveling supporters.
Napoli don’t have European football as a result of their collapse following a first Scudetto since 1990 and the days of Diego Maradona.
And under Antonio Conte Napoli have quickly re-established themselves as title challengers, with the advantage of not having the expanded Champions League jamming up their schedule.
“We’re trying to build something here, something that isn’t just a flash in the pan but lasts long-term,” said Conte to DAZN.
Fiorentina hammered 10-man Lecce 6-0 to move up to fifth and six points behind Napoli with their best performance since Raffaele Palladino took over in the summer.
Braces from both Danilo Cataldi and Andrea Colpani, the latter’s first goals since following Palladino from Monza, 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 offense 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.
