Icardi brace rescues De Boer
Mauro Icardi may well have rescued Frank de Boer’s Inter job with a brace to sink Sinisa Mihajlovic’s Torino 2-1.
This was the last chance saloon for De Boer after three consecutive Serie A defeats and he hosted a Toro side unbeaten in six. Gary Medel started a three-match ban with Geoffrey Kondogbia injured, while Ever Banega returned to push Ivan Perisic on to the bench. Torino missed Leandro Castan, but Adem Ljajic and Sinisa Mihajlovic were eager to make a point against their former club. So was Maxi Lopez, the exhusband of Mauro Icardi’s wife Wanda Nara, as the pair had a bitter falling out.
Toro had won the last two editions of this fixture and were comfortably on better form going in, so confidence among the home fans was low.
Joao Mario and Antonio Candreva’s volley whistled just wide, while Eder blasted over and Mauro Icardi just failed to get his head to a Candreva cross.
Inter took the lead when Can- dreva’s through ball allowed Icardi to spring the offside trap and Joe Hart seemed to get to it first, but meekly pushed it on to the Argentine’s shin and it ricocheted into the net.
An Adem Ljajic free kick hit the wall after Joao Miranda was rather foolishly caught in possession. Marcelo Brozovic wasted a counter by firing it straight at Hart, then turning the rebound on to the roof of the net.
It proved costly, as Andrea Belotti made the most of some comical defending to draw Torino level. He chested forward a long ball, Cristian Ansaldi and Jeison Murillo literally ran into each other and Il Gallo was free to smash into the roof of the net.
Brozovic somehow failed to score when his header a yard from an open goal was straight at the back of Emiliano Moretti on the line.
Candreva also missed a sitter, nodding wide from Eder’s cross, and Luca Rossettini flung himself in the way of another Candreva strike.
Just as it seemed to be heading towards a stalemate, Icardi came to the rescue. The Argentine gathered from Joao Mario with his back to goal, turned the defender showing great strength and hit a rocket into the top corner from 14 yards. Juventus AS Roma Napoli AC Milan Lazio Atalanta Genoa Torino Chievo Inter Fiorentina Bologna Sassuolo Cagliari Sampdoria Udinese Pescara Palermo Empoli Crotone 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 10 10 10 9 10 10 10 10 9 10
9 10 10 8 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 4 3 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 1 3 1 3 3 3 2 4 4 1 1 2 1 4 3 3 2 2 21 7 24 2 26 12 22 2 19 10 20 3 16 14 19 2 20 11 18 4 13 13 16 2 12 7 15 3 20 13 15 3 11 10 15 4 13 13 14 2 12 10 13 3 11 14 13 5 13 17 13 5 17 23 13 5 11 16 11 5 10 15 10 5 9 15 7 5 6 16 6 6 2 13 6 8 8 21 2 Malmo beat Falkenberg 3-0 yesterday, thanks to goals from Jo Inge Berget, Mattias Svanberg and Alexander Jeremejeff, to secure its 19th Swedish championship with two rounds remaining in the spring-fall Allsvenskan league.
Second-placed Norrkoping lost to Elfsborg and dropped seven points behind Malmo in the league table with six points left to play for.