Inter open 10-point gap at top of Serie A
SERIE A leaders I nter Milan scored three times in the first half on their way to a comprehensive 4-0 defeat of bottom club Salernitana yesterday.
The win moved Inter 10 points clear of second-place Juventus, who play at Verona today.
Marcos Thuram opened the scoring with a fine side-foot finish after 16 minutes and Lautaro Martinez doubled the lead three minutes later with a shot from outside the box.
Denzel Dumfries made it 3-0 five minutes before halftime when he tapped in from close range after the goalkeeper spilled a shot from Nicolò Barella. Austrian centre forward Marko Arnautovic rounded off the rout in the final minute.
It was a sobering start for Fabio Liverani, who was appointed Salernitana coach last Monday with the task of keeping the club up.
His new side remained rooted to the bottom of the table, five points adrift of Cagliari and with just two wins all season.
Earlier, Duván Zapata scored his third goal in four games as Torino’s super start to 2024 continued after beating Lecce 2-0.
The result extended Torino’s unbeaten run to six games. It lifted the Turin club one place into ninth.
Raoul Bellanova got the opener five minutes into the second half and Zapata added a second with a textbook header from a corner kick 10 minutes from time.
Lecce centre half Marin Pongracic was sent off in the second half.
The team remained 13th after only one win in its last nine league games.
Meanwhile in England, Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah could play against Brentford in the Premier League today after recovering from a hamstring injury, manager Jurgen Klopp said.
The Egypt international has been out for a month since sustaining the injury at the Africa Cup of Nations.
“Mo is back in full training, that brings him automatically in contention of course,” Klopp said yesterday.
Salah’s return to fitness is a boost to Liverpool after injury to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Thiago Alcantara and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Klopp dismissed suggestions that setbacks for those players could be attributed to them returning too soon after injury.
Alexander-Arnold is out of next week’s League Cup final against Chelsea because of a recurrence of a knee problem in last weekend’s win against Burnley.
Thiago was out for around nine months with a hip injury and suffered a muscle problem 10 minutes into his comeback against Arsenal earlier this month.
Szoboszlai missed most of January with a hamstring problem. He is out again after hurting his hamstring.
Klopp insisted “we never forced anyone back and never will do”.