Icardi scores hat-trick to help Inter beat AC in Milan derby
Sampdoria moves 6th in Serie A with win over Atalanta
Mauro Icardi scored a hat-trick, including a late penalty, to lep Inter beat AC 3-2 in yesterday’s Derby della Madonnina.
Icardi scored the three goals for Inter, who led 1-0 at the interval, with the winner arriving two minutes from the end, after having seen AC fighting back twice to level at two-all.
The victory enabled Inter to remain in second place on 22 points, just two behind league leaders Napoli. Milan are in ninth on 12 points.
It was as usual a hotly contested clash with Milan enjoying slightly more possession than their rivals.
The first real chance came after 13 minutes when Antonio Candreva unleashed a screamer that thumped the crossbar from the edge of the box.
Suso drilled wide from distance and Joao Miranda’s header flashed inches wide from a set play, but Inter took the lead with Mauro Icardi’s first goal from open play since August.
It was the 28th minute when Candreva whipped a perfect cross in from the right and Icardi snuck up between the two defenders to steer it into the far bottom corner from six yards. It was the Argentine’s first touch inside the opposition penalty area.
Ivan Perisic saw another attempt charged down by Mateo Musacchio, Andre Silva nodded over from Ricardo Rodriguez’s free kick and Gianluigi Donnarumma smothered Icardi and Vecino strikes.
The Rossoneri threatened on the stroke of half-time. Fabio Borini ran on to a Franck Kessie through ball but Samir Handanovic parried at the base of the near post.
AC had Andre Silva hitting the post on 49 minutes, and a Musacchio goal on 50 minutes disallowed for an offside infringement. But they eventually equalised through a fine Suso shot on 56 minutes.
Cutrone, for AC, and Vecino, for Inter, both went close before Icardi struck again in the 63rd minute, after receiving a good cross from Perisic.
AC fought back strongly and they managed to score a second equaliser through Bonaventura on 81 minutes, his shot hitting the upright and going in past the line via goalie Handanovic’s feet.
But it was not yet over as with just two minutes remaining for the end, Inter were awarded a penalty when Rodriguez floored D’Ambrosio and referee Tagliavento showed no hesitation in pointing to the dreaded spot. And Icardi made no mistake to seal his hattrick and Inter’s victory.
Sampdoria came back from a goal down at the interval to beat visiting Atalanta 3-1 and move into sixth place in Serie A yesterday.
Duvan Zapata, Gianluca Caprari and Karol Linetty scored second-half goals for Samp, which has lost once in seven matches and has a game in hand.
Atalanta, which held Juventus to a 2-2 draw before the international break, had taken an early lead with a header from Bryan Cristante.
Bologna see off SPAL in regional derby
Bologna were made to work hard for this victory in the local derby, as SPAL set up a nervous finale with Mirco Antenucci’s stunner two minutes from the end.
This fixture hadn’t been played at all since 1992-93 and not in Serie A for 50 years.
Andrea Poli opened the scoring and Bartosz Salamon accidentally turned into his own net to give Bologna a 2-0 lead.
SPAL kept the Dall’Ara crowd on the edge of their seats late on thanks to an Antenucci curler into the corner.
Genoa win thriller in Sardinia
Genoa made the most of truly terrible defending to take all three points from Cagliari in this fivegoal thriller.
The Grifone should arguably have had the game sealed up by half-time, because Andrej Galabinov and Adel Taarabt converted only some of the many chances created.
Leonardo Pavoletti scored his first goal in a Cagliari jersey, nodding in to get the hosts back in the game.
Luca Rigoni added to his assist with a towering header from a corner and the cushion was needed, as Joao Pedro converted a penalty for 3-2.
Torino snatch point in stoppage time
Torino came back twice to snatch a point in stoppages, as Crotone were left to rue what might’ve been.
The Squali took a deserved lead through Marcus Rohden’s solo effort, curling in off the inside of the far post with his right boot.
After goal-line technology confirmed Alex Cordaz had successfully clawed an Adem Ljajic free kick away just in time, Iago Falque’s curler got Toro back on level terms.
Crotone restored their lead with some great one-touch football finalised by Bruno Martella, but deep into stoppages it was veteran Lorenzo De Silvestri who nodded in the equaliser.
Sassuolo-Chievo stalemate
Sassuolo fired blanks again with Chievo, but both sides had plenty of chances at the Mapei Stadium.
Neroverdi Coach Cristian Bucchi remains under pressure after this disappointing stalemate and they have not beaten Chievo in their last five meetings, home and away.
There were opportunities for Domenico Berardi, Lucas Castro and Diego Falcinelli, while Paolo Cannavaro had a goal disallowed.
Thereau double helps Fiorentina to beat Udinese
Cyril Thereau bagged a brace against his former club, giving Fiorentina a much-needed victory over surprisingly negative Udinese.
It was a game of two halves at the Stadio Franchi, as the hosts were almost embarrassingly dominant before the break.
Thereau eventually got the goal, Giovanni Simeone knocking down a Federico Chiesa cross for him to turn in, but it could easily have been more with Gabriele Angella’s desperate goal-line clearance on Thereau and the woodwork denying Giovanni Simeone.
Udinese came out fighting for the second half, but just as they were pushing hardest, they were caught on the counter-attack, Thereau turning in the rebound from a parried Jordan Veretout effort.
Defender Samir did get Udinese back into the game when springing the offside trap and there were some nervous final minutes in Florence.