ROME: Inter Milan warmed up for their Champions League semifinal showdown with AC Milan with an entertaining 4-2 win over Sassuolo on Saturday while their city rivals floundered 2-0 at Serie A strugglers Spezia.
A Romelu Lukaku brace on his 30th birthday, a further strike from Lautaro Martinez and an unfortunate Ruan Tressoldi own goal were enough for Inter to claim a seventh straight win in all competitions and move level on 66 points with second-placed Juventus.
“The coach told us the game was a match-point for the top four, and we’re in good shape as we’ve been winning a lot of games recently,” said Lukaku to Sky Sport.
“We can still win two trophies and on Tuesday we have a very difficult match against the team that won the league last season.”
Inter hold a 2-0 lead over Milan ahead of Tuesday’s second leg and Simone Inzaghi’s side look almost certain to reach their first Champions League final since they last won it in 2010.
Their chances of qualifying for next season’s edition of Europe’s top club competition were also greatly improved by Saturday’s win, which came after top four rivals Lazio, Milan and Atalanta all dropped points.
Inter are five points ahead of fifth-placed Milan but after looking like they were going to cruise to the win they didn’t end up having it their own way.
Lukaku put Inter ahead with a rasping effort shortly before the break after both Domenico Berardi and Joaquin Correa both had goals ruled out for offside.
Ten minutes after the restart Tressoldi headed Raoul Bellanova’s cross into his own net and the match seemed over three minutes later when Martinez’s effort was deflected in again by Tressoldi.
Headers from Matheus Henrique and Davide Frattesi pulled Sassuolo back into the game until Lukaku finally sealed the points with a fine low finish with two minutes remaining.
Przemyslaw Wisniewski and Salvatore Esposito struck their first Serie A goals in the final 15 minutes to sink Milan and give Spezia their first win in two months.
Leonardo Semplici’s team are still in the relegation zone but Saturday’s win moves them level on 30 points with Verona, who sit one place above the bottom three and host Torino on Sunday.
Next weekend Spezia travel to Lecce who are just two points above the drop zone in 16th following their 2-2 draw at Lazio on Friday night.
“It’s a goal I’ve dreamed about since I was a child, I used to talk to a good friend of mine who is a big Milan fan and I’d always tell him that I’d score against them,” said Esposito to DAZN.
“These are big points for Spezia... we never lost faith, otherwise you’d never see performances like the one today.”
Stefano Pioli’s Milan team have won three times in their last 11 league matches and Saturday’s defeat was their 10th of a strange season in which their league title defense was de facto over by February.
“Tonight was not good enough... Tuesday we have another battle. We’ve had a lot of trouble with these kinds of matches and it’s difficult to explain why,” said Milan defender Simon Kjaer.
“In our line of work you need to mentally separate the matches you play because the match we played on Wednesday and today’s were completely different. We need to remove this one from our minds and get back to work.”
Spezia’s win means Salernitana will have to wait for mathematical safety, although they should stay up after Antonio Candreva shot them to a 1-0 win over Atalanta in the day’s early game.
Under a torrential downpour in southern Italy Candreva won the match for Salernitana in the 93rd minute with a powerful low drive from the edge of the area.
Salernitana are eight points above Spezia with three games remaining in the season, while Atalanta are seventh and seven points from the Champions League positions.
Inter triumph, Milan slump ahead of Champions League semifinal date
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Inter triumph, Milan slump ahead of Champions League semifinal date
- Inter hold a 2-0 lead over Milan ahead of Tuesday’s second leg Champions League
Real Madrid edge Valencia to stay on Barca’s tail, Atletico slump
- After Spanish champions Barca had beaten Mallorca on Saturday, Alvaro Arbeloa’s Madrid eked out a tight victory at Mestalla to keep the pressure on their arch-rivals
BARCELONA: Kylian Mbappe scored his 23rd goal of the season in La Liga to help Real Madrid claim a battling 2-0 win at Valencia on Sunday and close the gap to leaders Barcelona to one point.
Third-place Atletico Madrid slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Real Betis, three days after thrashing the Andalusian side in the Copa del Rey, falling further away from the top two.
After Spanish champions Barca had beaten Mallorca on Saturday, Alvaro Arbeloa’s Madrid eked out a tight victory at Mestalla to keep the pressure on their arch-rivals.
Missing suspended forward Vinicius Junior and injured midfielder Jude Bellingham, Los Blancos lacked sparkle but did enough to claim three points on Spain’s east coast.
Alvaro Carreras put the visitors ahead midway through the second half and Mbappe struck late on to seal their win.
“It was going to be a game where we had to have a lot of patience. I think it was a win that came because of how solid we were, and our focussed performance,” said Arbeloa.
“I think that we were fair winners.”
England international Trent Alexander-Arnold made his return after injury as a substitute in the second half of Madrid’s victory.
Arda Guler and Mbappe had chances in the first half, while Madrid right-back David Jimenez, from the club’s youth academy, came closest to scoring but was denied by goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
Midway through the second half, Carreras conjured a goal out of nothing to give Madrid the lead.
Coming in from the left, the defender used his weaker right foot to stroke the ball inside Dimitrievski’s near post.
Valencia might have levelled but Lucas Beltran’s effort on the stretch clipped the post.
Madrid eventually secured the three points in stoppage time as Brahim Diaz teed up La Liga’s top scorer Mbappe to finish from close range.
“Right now he’s the best player in the world, for what he’s showing day after day and game after game,” said Arbeloa, who reiterated that Mbappe could live up to his boyhood idol Cristiano Ronaldo’s legacy at Real Madrid.
“As I’ve said before, it seemed like Cristiano was something alien, impossible to equal, and that nobody would get close, but Kylian is on a good path... it’s not easy, obviously, but if anyone can, it’s Kylian.”
Valencia’s fans, some of whom had waved white handkerchieves during the match in protest at the club’s situation, headed for the exits with Los Che 17th, one point above the drop zone.
“It’s normal that (the fans) are nervous, I would be too,” admitted Valencia captain Jose Gaya to DAZN.
Revenge mission
Antony’s first-half strike helped Betis win at Atletico, earning his side revenge for their cup mauling, and leaving Atletico 13 points behind leaders Barcelona.
Betis, fifth, continued their push toward the top four, now trailing fourth-placed Villarreal by four points, although they have played two more matches than the Yellow Submarine.
Diego Simeone’s Atletico waltzed into the Copa del Rey semifinals with a hefty 5-0 win at Betis on Thursday, but this was a far closer affair at Atletico’s Metropolitano stadium.
“It’s a tough defeat to take after the great game we had in the cup. We weren’t as good as the other day,” admitted Atletico captain Koke to Movistar.
“They set up a lot tighter at the back... We had very few chances and they played a great game.”
Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini made five changes to the team which crumbled at home and his side were determined to prove a point in the Spanish capital.
“I’m very happy for the goal and even more so for the victory — it’s been a very difficult week,” said Antony, who curled home after 28 minutes, beating Jan Oblak at his near post.
“We had to change, there was no other option... we’re sorry (to the fans) for the game in the cup.”
Atletico had the ball in Betis’s net with 15 minutes to go when Diego Llorente headed Giuliano Simeone’s cross into his own net, but Antoine Griezmann was judged to be fractionally offside and interfering with play.
Elsewhere, Athletic Bilbao beat Levante 4-2, Sevilla and Girona shared a 1-1 draw, and Getafe won 2-0 at Alaves.
