Inter return to winning ways

Inter ended a four-match winless streak, obtaining victory against Parma

Lautaro Martinez came off the bench and scored with his first touch, as Inter scraped a muchneeded victory away to Parma.

Both sides rattled the woodwork with Gervinho and Marcelo Brozovic, while Danilo D’Ambrosio saw his goal disallowed for a handling offence.

Lautaro Martinez came off the bench and opened the scoring within two minutes. Juraj Kucka was caught in possession, Nainggolan surged forward and threaded through for the Argentine, who held off his marker to smash into the roof of the net from a tricky angle with his right boot. That was Inter’s first Serie A goal of 2019.

The Nerazzurri had an extraordinary double chance, as Vecino managed to get past Sepe only to see Riccardo Gagliolo clear off the line, then the move continued and Brozovic’s curler bounced off the far post.

Handanovic still had some work to do in stoppages, as In- glese’s acrobatic volley happened to be straight at him.

Napoli missed the chance to cut the gap to Serie A leader Juventus to six points as it was held at Fiorentina to 0-0 yesterday.

Juventus, which is on a seemingly unstoppable march to a record-extending eighth successive league title, can stretch its lead to 11 points with a win at Sassuolo today.

Napoli was hit by an early blow in Florence as defender Mario Rui went off with a thigh strain five minutes in and had to be replaced by Faouzi Ghoulam.

Fiorentina goalkeeper Alban Lafont and his Napoli counterpart Alex Meret pulled off a number of fine saves to keep the match goalless.

Napoli seemed certain to score early in the second half but Lafont did brilliantly to parry Piotr Zielinski's close-range effort.

The visitors were also let down by some poor finishing from Arkadiusz Milik and Dries Mertens.

Fiorentina inched to within four points of a Europa League berth.