Juve end Inter’s perfect start
MILAN: Juventus ended Inter Milan’s perfect start to the season with a 2-1 win at San Siro to move top of Serie A on Sunday.
Gonzalo Higuain came off the bench and scored the winner 10 minutes from time as Inter coach Antonio Conte’s first match against his former club ended in defeat. “We should not forget that Juventus have been on this course for a long time,” said Conte, who led the Bianconeri to the first three of their eight successive titles. “There was a gap created that is so big, so vast, that today we need to be honest and say it will be hard to remove that gap in one or two years.”
Lautaro Martinez had converted a penalty in the 18th minute for Inter to cancel out Paulo Dybala’s fourth-minute opener.
The Derby d’Italia victory sent defending champion Juventus top, a point above Inter and three above Atalanta. “Overtaking (Inter) at this time has little meaning, what matters is the performance of personality and character against a strong team,” Juve coach Maurizio Sarri said.
Juventus got off to the perfect start as Miralem Pjanic floated a ball over the top for Dybala to run onto and slot past the outstretched hand of Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic. Cristiano Ronaldo almost doubled Juve’s lead five minutes later but his effort crashed off the crossbar. Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt has struggled since his big-money move from Ajax and he gave away a penalty for handball. Lautaro fired the spot kick into the bottom left corner.
Ronaldo thought he had restored Juve’s advantage four minutes from halftime but Dybala had strayed offside when he provided the assist and the goal was disallowed.
Matias Vecino also hit the woodwork for Inter midway through the second half.
Juventus won the match with a well-worked team move. Pjanic and Rodrigo Bentancur exchanged quick passes before the latter set up Higuain, who controlled the ball before driving it past Handanovic.
BARCA RUN RIOT
MADRID: Barcelona are back in form and La Liga’s big three are back at the top of the table after the defending champions put on a finishing masterclass to thrash Sevilla 4-0.
Lionel Messi scored his first goal of the season by curling in a brilliant free-kick at Camp Nou after three goals in eight minutes from Luis Suarez, Arturo Vidal and Ousmane Dembele had already put Sevilla out of sight.
Suarez launched the flurry, his stunning left-footed bicycle kick arguably even better than the volley he scored in the Champions League win over Inter Milan on Wednesday. Vidal then finished a superb passing move that involved all 11 Barca players and Dembele powered through to make it three before Messi added a fourth in the second half.