Inter’s defence faces Atalanta challenge
INTER Milan welcome free-scoring Atalanta tomorrow for a heated Lombardy derby at the halfway mark the Italian Serie A season.
Further big action is set for Sunday when leaders Juventus, ahead of Inter on head-to-head, visit fourth-placed AS Roma, while thirdplaced Lazio play Napoli.
Surprising Atalanta, who unlike Inter advanced to the knockout stage of the Uefa Champions League, are coming off 5-0 wins against AC Milan and Parma for a league leading 48 goals and will now tackle the best defence, with 15 goals conceded.
The Bergamo side sit fifth on 34 points from 18 games, 11 points behind the leaders.
They go into the big match at the Giuseppe Meazza with striker Duvan Zapata approaching full recovery. The Colombian had scored six goals from seven games when he suffered a muscular injury in early October.
“It will be a great game,” midfielder Timothy Castagne said. “We want to close (the first half) in style and we’ll try our best. We lost some points in the first part but we can do better and want more in the second half.”
Inter worsened Napoli’s troubles on Monday with a 3-1 win marked by a Romelu Lukaku brace as Lautaro Martinez settled matters in Naples.
“We’re working to give our all,” Martinez said. “We’re doing well, I’m pleased not so much for the goal, but rather for the team. We ran and we pressed well. We’ll keep doing what the coach (Antonio Conte) asks of us, we must keep improving.”
Strikers shone as the league resumed after a two-week break, with braces from Lazio’s Ciro Immobile, who tops the chart on 19 goals, Lukaku (14), Atalanta’s Josip Ilicic (9) and a hat-trick from Juve’s Cristiano Ronaldo (13).
Roma (34) are bracing themselves to welcome the champions after a 2-0 home defeat to Torino and look to remain in the four-team Champions League zone as Atalanta lurk one point behind.
“I hope that after the game Cristiano will be very angry,” the Giallorossi coach Paulo Fonseca quipped about his Portugal compatriot Ronaldo.
Lazio, the other Rome side who celebrated their 120th anniversary yesterday, are six points from the top with a game in hand, as they chase a record 10th successive league win against Napoli who are a modest eighth on 24 points.
AC Milan are worse off on 22 before opening the round at Cagliari tomorrow. The Rossoneri found no telling improvement from the return of veteran star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who however, was still far from top form when he came on in a scoreless draw with Sampdoria.
Completing matchday 19 on Sunday are Udinese v Sassuolo, Fiorentina v SPAL, Torino v Bologna, Sampdoria v Brescia and Verona v Genoa. Parma and Lecce meet on Monday.