MILAN: Inter Milan continued their domination of the Serie A title race on Saturday by crushing Monza 5-1 and moving five points clear at the summit, while last-gasp drama gave Napoli a 2-1 win over Salernitana.

Doubles from Hakan Calhanoglu and Lautaro Martinez and a late strike from Marcus Thuram extended Inter’s advantage on Juventus, who host Sassuolo on Tuesday night. “Monza are a good team with good players but if we play like we did today it’ll be hard for anyone to beat us,” said Calhanoglu to Sky Sport.

Turkey captain Calhanoglu has shone at Inter since being converted to a deeper midfield role by coach Simone Inzaghi and this season he has scored 10 times in all competitions. “I’ve grown as a player, I have a new role which I like a lot and I always try to give my best for my teammates,” he added.

Inter now head to the revamped, four-team Italian Super Cup in Riyadh, where they begin a tough run of fixtures with Thursday’s semi-final against Lazio. A trip to high-flying Fiorentina will follow the Super Cup at the end of the month before a showdown with Juve at the San Siro in early February, by which time their closest rivals could be top of the pile due to having a game in hand. Inter don’t play what would have been next weekend’s home clash with Atalanta until the end of next month due to their Super Cup commitments.

Brilliant Inter

However if they continue to play as they did in a blistering display on Saturday they should have little to fear from any opposition. Calhanoglu put Inter ahead from the penalty spot in the 12th minute after Roberto Gagliardini handled Martinez’s header, and the away side were two in front moments later.

A great team move swept Inter from one end of the pitch to the other and ended with Martinez prodding home from close range. Monza’s Matteo Pessina then had a header ruled out for the tightest of offsides in the 29th minute, and Calhanoglu made sure of the points on the hour mark when he stroked home Thuram’s neat lay-off.

Pessina did get his goal from the penalty spot nine minutes later but by then the damage was done. With six minutes remaining Martinez netted a penalty of his own to take his league tally to 18 for the season and four minutes later Thuram capped a perfect evening with a fine individual strike.

“You can only compliment a great team, because they were brilliant tonight,” said Monza coach Raffaele Palladino. “We lost a match against a really good side, but we need to clear our heads and just move on to the next game.” 

Napoli relief

Amir Rrahmani capitalised on dreadful Salernitana defending to poke home a stoppage-time winner and move Napoli up to sixth, 20 points behind Inter. The hosts came back from going behind in the 29th minute to a stunning Antonio Candreva strike, with Matteo Politano pulling Napoli level from the penalty spot at the end of the first half before Rrahmani brought the house down.

Napoli are also two points behind fourth-placed Fiorentina, who sit in the final Champions League spot and host Udinese on Sunday. “It was a real team win, a hallmark of this team last season but something that we haven’t seen too much of this year,” said Mazzarri.

Saturday’s win brought euphoria to home fans who have watched a side which cruised to last season’s historic Scudetto put up a weak title defence. But the three points came with a large slice of good fortune as Politano’s leveller came after a soft foul from Federico Fazio on Giovanni Simeone, given after a VAR check.

And deep in added time Salernitana goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa helped hand Napoli the win when he clattered into Fazio while trying to collect Giacomo Raspadori’s free-kick, before the ball squirmed to Rrahmani who rammed home the decisive goal. – AFP