Inter Milan issued a warning to the rest of Serie A with their 3-0 win at Napoli on Sunday, re-establishing their two-point advantage at the top and putting the champions’ title defence on life support.
Beautiful goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, Nicolo Barella, and Marcus Thuram lifted Inter back over closest rivals Juventus, who temporarily held the top spot after defeating Monza on Friday.
Sunday’s thrashing demonstrated why Inter are favourites to win a 20th league title, as they remain unbeaten away from home in all competitions after collecting a big win at a place where they have a terrible record.
“It was a show of strength, a show of team spirit,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi remarked.
“Winning like this in Naples is satisfying, but we’re only 14 games in and there is a very long way to go.”
Napoli are now 11 points behind Juve and face them next weekend in a game that could effectively ruin the champions’ chances of retaining the Scudetto before the end of the calendar year.
To make matters worse, Napoli has tumbled out of the top four, being replaced by Roma, who won 2-1 at Sassuolo earlier in the day and currently hold the final Champions League position on goal difference.
Recriminations in Napoli
The return of Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri was met with silence after the match, with sporting director Mauro Meluso expressing his displeasure with referee Davide Massa for not stopping play for a foul before Inter’s opener and not awarding a penalty for what he believed was a clear foul on Victor Osimhen while the home side trailed by a single goal.
“I don’t want to create an excuse for our team, who obviously still need to work on a few things, but we didn’t deserve that humiliation today,” Meluso said in a statement.
Simone Inzaghi’s side has won 11 of its 14 league games this season, and when Hakan Calhanoglu smashed in the opener on the stroke of half-time, they handled a hyped-up Napoli masterfully.
Napoli were playing their first home game under Mazzarri, whose squad has only seven points from three games at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Barella extended Inter’s advantage right after the hour mark, just after Yann Sommer made a wonderful save to deny Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, one of three superb saves from the Swiss.
Barella surged through midfield unimpeded, receiving Lautaro Martinez’s low pass and skipping past Leo Ostigard and Natan before comfortably scoring past Alex Meret.
With five minutes remained, Thuram – who had earlier had a goal called out for a tiny offside – secured the points by tapping home replacement Juan Cuadrado’s low cross, his fifth league goal of a remarkable first season at Inter.
Roma’s return
Roma won a gritty match against 10-man Sassuolo thanks to a penalty from Paulo Dybala in the 76th minute and a spectacularly deflected effort from Rasmus Kristensen shortly afterwards.
The victory at Mapei Stadium came as coach Jose Mourinho is reportedly being investigated by the Italian Football Federation for claiming ahead of the match that referee Matteo Marcenaro lacked “the emotional stability to referee at this level.”
In a pre-match outburst on Saturday, the Portuguese lambasted Marcenaro, 31, which the country’s referees association stated “could lead to violence” against officials.
In his post-match interview with DAZN, Mourinho insisted on speaking only in Portuguese, despite possessing good Italian.
“I am speaking Portuguese because my Italian is not good enough to explain certain concepts,” he said.
“When I spoke about emotional stability, I was talking about a quality that is necessary in both life and football in order to perform at the highest level.”
Fiorentina sits a point behind Roma and Napoli in sixth place after a 3-0 win against the division’s bottom team Salernitana, while Bologna is a further point and place back after a 1-1 draw at Lecce.