MILAN: Defending champions Inter Milan missed their chance to move top of Serie A on Sunday after losing 1-0 at Juventus, who boosted thir hopes of a top-four finish.
Francisco Conceiçao scored the only goal in the 74th minute of a high-tempo Derby d’Italia, or Italy’s derby as matches between the two fierce rivals have come to be known.
Inter wasted a number of chances and remained two points behind league leader Napoli, who were held to a 2-2 draw at Lazio on Saturday. Juventus are fourth.
“There’s certainly great regret and disappointment — clearly we should have been better at finishing and scoring goals,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said. “Because after a first half like that we should have gone in at the break ahead.
“Then we didn’t approach the second half like the first … we need to work even harder because what we’re doing isn’t enough for what we want to achieve.”
Inter visit Napoli in a potential title-deciding match in two weeks.
“We’ll try to do our best, or at least better than tonight,” Inzaghi said.
Inter had the better of the chances in the first half, with Lautaro Martinez uncharacteristically blazing over the bar from close range when completely unmarked. However, visiting goalkeeper Yann Sommer had to make the most important saves.
Nerazzurri defender Denzel Dumfries also hit the post twice.
But it was Juventus who broke the deadlock with a fantastic assist from new signing Randal Kolo Muani.
The France forward, who had scored five goals in three league matches for Juventus, gathered the ball on the edge of the area and made his way through a crowd of players before tripping. The ball came to Conceiçao, who drove it into the bottom left corner.
Juventus almost doubled their lead two minutes later but Dumfries did brilliantly to clear Teun Koopmeiners’ effort off the line.
Three Thurams
The match had also been dubbed “the Thuram derby” with Marcus Thuram playing for Inter and younger brother Khephren for Juventus.
However, Marcus was recovering from an ankle problem and was only brought on in the 62nd minute, 15 minutes before Khephren was substituted off.
Their dad, Lilian Thuram — who starred as a defender for Juventus and won the World Cup with France in 1998 — was watching from the stands.
Teenage hero
Teenager Assane Diao could very well prove to be Como’s savior.
The 19-year-old scored again on Sunday to set relegation-threatened Como on their way to a 2-0 win at Fiorentina.
It was Diao’s fourth goal in his seven matches since joining from Real Betis last month and the win lifted Cesc Fabregas’ team five points above the drop zone.
Fiorentina were four points below Juventus.
Como broke the deadlock four minutes before halftime with a rapid counterattack. A Fiorentina free kick was headed out of the area when Diao gathered the ball deep inside his own half and raced forward to beat home goalkeeper David De Gea one-on-one.
Nico Paz doubled Como’s lead in the 66th with a shot that took a slight deflection to curl in off the top of the left post.
Game-changing moment
Roma were without injured star forward Paulo Dybala but managed to win 1-0 at 10-man Parma.
The match changed in the 29th minute when teenage Parma defender Giovanni Leoni fouled Roma’s Matías Soule. The referee initially awarded a penalty to the visitors and showed Leoni a yellow card.
However, the video assistant referee confirmed that contact was outside the area so the penalty was rescinded but Leoni’s card was changed to a red as the 18-year-old had prevented a clear scoring opportunity.
To make matters worse for Parma, Soule dinked the resulting free kick over the wall and into the top right corner.
Roma was nine points below the top four, while Parma remained a point from safety.
Empoli occupy that last place of safety despite losing 3-0 at Udinese for their eighth defeat in their past 10 matches.
Alessandro Nesta returned as coach of bottom club Monza last week — two months after he was fired — and managed to end his team’s four-match losing streak with a 0-0 draw against Lecce.
