Rome (AFP)
Inter took an important step towards retaining the title, after overcoming the obstacle of its strong guest, Roma, with a well deserved 3-1 victory in the thirty-fourth stage of the Italian League, taking the lead temporarily, awaiting the result of the visit of its neighbor Milan to the capital to face Lazio “Sunday”.
Similar to what happened in his last visit to the team’s stadium, which led him to a historic triple in 2010, when he lost 0-2 in the quarter-finals of the cup competition on February 8, the Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho fell at the “San Siro” again and the series of consecutive Rome matches stopped from Unbeaten at 12 in the league.
Once again, Inter confirmed that they are most ready to retain the title they won last season with the current Tottenham Hotspur coach, Antonio Conte, not only because he won his fourth consecutive victory in the league, but also because he swept his arch-rival Milan 3-0 in the middle of the week to reach the final of the cup competition, where He meets the “old lady”.
What increases the chances of coach Simone Inzaghi’s team, which is temporarily a point away from Milan, is that it has a postponed match to play on Wednesday at the Bologna stadium. If it wins, it will go a long way towards winning the title.
Although he was facing a different team than the one who lost the first leg at home 3-0 in December, and in the cup quarter-final 0-2 at San Siro in February, Inter fully deserved the three points and served Juventus, who can largely guarantee the last fourth place qualification to the Champions League; Because it will move 8 points away from the capital club in the event of its victory over its guest Sassuolo on Monday.
As a result of not losing any of its last 12 matches in the league, in a series that included a 1-0 victory over Atalanta and its arch-neighbour, Lazio 3-0, in addition to a draw in the last stage with the third Napoli 1-1 in the last stronghold, Roma entered the battle of participation in the Champions League. With Juventus, who was the last team to drop the capital club in the league by winning it 4-3 in the capital on the ninth of December.
Mourinho’s team is also the only remaining representative of Italy at the continental level, reaching the semi-finals of the “Conference League”, where it faces Leicester City, England, on Thursday, first-leg at the latter’s stadium, and a week later, back at home.
Similar to what happened Tuesday in the second leg of the cup semi-final against Milan, more than 70,000 spectators gathered at the “San Siro” stadium to follow the fateful confrontation of Inter against the capital club, whose last victory over the “Nerasori” in Milan dates back to February 26, 2017, 3-2 When the current Bosnian Inter striker Edin Dzeko was in his ranks.
The two teams did not provide anything at the beginning of the match played by Inter, with the participation of former Roma striker Edin Dzeko, alongside Argentine Lautaro Martinez, and at the expense of the latter’s compatriot Joaquin Correa, who played the past three games mainly.
Inter waited until the 19th minute to threaten their guest’s goal with a powerful long shot by Turkey’s Hakan Galhanoglu, who was repelled by Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
Roma responded with a header for Gianluca Mancini, after a free kick by Lorenzo Pellegrini, but the ball went over the crossbar a little (29).
After a few seconds, Roma found themselves behind after a quick attack by the owners of the land, after which the ball arrived from Galhanoglu to Dutchman Denzel Dumfries, who was alone with Patricio and put the ball under the Portuguese goalkeeper “30”.
The task of “Galurosi” became very complicated, after he entered the two-half break, trailing two goals, after a wonderful effort by Croatian Marcelo Brozovic, who received the ball inside the penalty area, manipulating Mancini and hitting the ball with a wonderful arc in the upper left corner of Patricio’s goal “39”.
Inter dealt the final blow to Roma by scoring the third goal at the beginning of the second half with a header by Laotaro Martinez, after he received the ball from the brilliant Galhanoglu after a corner kick “52”, raising his score to 16 goals in “Serie A” this season.
Inter could have increased their yield on more than one occasion in light of the shaking of their guest’s morale, but in the end they were satisfied with the three goals, which opened the door for Mourinho’s team to score the honorable goal through Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan after a pass from Uzbek Eldor Shumorodov (85).
Atalanta returned to the winning streak, which it had avoided for five consecutive games, by deepening the wounds of its last host, Venezia, by defeating it 3-1.
After he was a contender for the title and fourth in the standings from the twelfth to twenty-third stage, Atalanta’s results declined to the point that it was even outside the accounts of continental participation, and we are not talking about the Champions League, but about the “European League” or the “Conference League”.
Coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s team entered the match at the bottom of the standings, against the background of three consecutive defeats in the league, a draw and a continental defeat, as it exited from the quarter-finals of the “Europe League” competition by falling at home against Leipzig 0-2 after returning with a 1-1 draw. .
The representative of Bergamo, with this fifteenth victory of the season, which was achieved thanks to the goals of the Croatian Mario Pasalic (44), the Colombians Dovan Zapata (47) and Luis Muriel (63), against a late goal for the owners of the land by Slovenian Domin Cheringoy (80), raised his score to 54 points in Eighth place, while Venezia’s balance froze at 22 points in the last place, 6 points behind the safety zone, 5 stages before the end of the season.
Torino achieved its tenth victory of the season by defeating its fifteenth guest, Spezia, 2-1, raising its score to 43 points in eleventh place.
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