Inter Milan fall further behind Napoli after Roma draw

By AFP

January 23, 2018

MILAN: Inter Milan fell further behind in the Serie A title race on Sunday after a scrappy 1-1 home draw with Champions League-chasing Roma left them 11 points behind leaders Napoli.

Matias Vecino equalised with a late header for Inter after Stephan El Shaarawy had capitalised on awful defending to clip home goalkeeper Alisson’s huge clearance in the 32nd minute to open the scoring.

Uruguayan Vecino met a whipped Marcelo Brozovic cross to beat an outstanding Alisson, who had made two superb second-half saves from Mauro Icardi, and keep Luciano Spalletti’s side in the top four, level on 43 points with third-placed Lazio and three ahead of Roma.

However they are winless in six games in the league and no longer look like title contenders, while Roma, who stay fifth on 40 points, have fallen even further behind after picking up just ten points from a possible 24 since beating Lazio in mid-November.

Eusebio Di Francesco’s side are now 12 points behind Napoli, who extended their lead at the top to four points when Dries Mertens ended a long goal drought to give his team a 1-0 victory at Atalanta.

Belgian international Mertens’s 65th-minute strike ended a league dry spell that stretched back to October 29, getting behind the defence and flashing his 11th goal of the season past Atalanta goalkeeper Etrit Berisha.

Atalanta are down to eighth after the loss and AC Milan’s 2-1 win at Cagliari, which came thanks to Franck Kessie scoring twice to drag his team back from a goal down in Sardinia.Lazio took third thanks to a thumping 5-1 win over Chievo in Rome that saw rising star Sergej Milinkovic-Savic bag a fine brace either side of half-time to put Lazio two up, after Chievo’s Manuel Pucciarelli had equalised Luis Alberto’s 23rd-minute long-range opener for the hosts.

Substitute Nani laid on Bastos to fire home a deflected fourth with seven minutes left, before the former Manchester United winger added a fifth three minutes later with a fine hit from the edge of the area.