Inter bounce back to beat Spal, Piatek rescues Milan at Chievo
MILAN: Mateo Politano and Roberto Gagliardini scored in the second half as Inter Milan beat Spal 2-0 on Sunday to revive their Champions League chase before next week’s derby showdown with local rivals AC Milan.
Inter had taken just a point from their last two games, falling at Cagliari last time out, and desperately needed a morale-boosting win to keep pace with AC Milan before next week’s Derby della Madonnina.
The win keeps Inter one point behind thirdplaced AC Milan who beat botom club Chievo 2-1 on Saturday for a fith league win in a row.
Argentina st arm au roi car di remained on the inter sidelines and has not played since being stripped of the captaincy a month ago.
Luciano Spalleti’s side were frustrated in the first half by SPAL who are just two points above the relegation zone.
Lautaro Martinez looked to have given Inter the lead ater half an hour on front of 61,000 fans in the San Siro but a VAR review awarded handball.
The hosts also lost Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, who limped off and was replaced by Antonio Candreva.
Politano finally broke through ater 68 minutes with Gagliardini turning in a Cedric assist nine minutes later. The race for Champions League football remains tight with Roma, Torino and Atalanta six points behind fourth-placed Inter Milan.
Tori no continued their impressive form with andrea Beloti bagging a brace to extend their winning run to three games with a 2-1 win at Frosinone.
Walter Mazzarri’s side move sixth and into the Europa League places, level on 44 points with Roma, who play at Empoli on Monday under new coach Claudio Ranieri, and Atalanta who beat Sampdoria 2-1.
Colombian Duvan Zapata broke through for the Bergamo outfit on 50 minutes and Robin Gosens scored the winner ater 77 minutes.
Fabio qu ag li ar ella hadequ ali sedfo rs amp doria from the spot on 67 minutes as the 36-year-old went top of the Serie A goal-scoring charts with 20 in 27 games, one more than Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo. Earlier, Krzysztof Piatek struck again to rescue a 2-1 win for AC Milan at botom club Chievo on Saturday, keeping their Champions League push firmly on track, but the Polish striker was accused of scoring with a ‘kung fu’ kick.
Piatek joined Milan from Genoa in January and has now scored eight goals in nine matches, as the club notched up a fith straight league win to remain unbeaten since before Christmas.