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Lautaro Martinez scored to help Inter Milan beat Genoa 1-0 and top of the Serie A standings after AC Milan lost 2-1 at Torino.
Serie A: Lautaro Martinez helped Inter Milan beat Genoa (AP)
Lautaro Martinez shot Inter Milan top of Serie A with the decisive goal in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Genoa which piled pressure on title rivals Napoli ahead of next weekend’s showdown in Naples.
Argentina striker Martinez’s deflected header from a corner in the 78th minute was enough for champions Inter to get past revitalised Genoa and move a point above Napoli, who are at Como in Sunday’s early kick-off.
Whatever happens lakeside the stage has been set for a huge clash as Inter and Napoli do battle for the Scudetto, with Atalanta lurking six points back in third ahead of their match at Empoli.
Martinez’s 10th league goal of the season decided a tight contest at the San Siro against Genoa, who will feel hard done by after a stubborn performance, and helped Inter bounce back from a painful defeat at rivals Juventus last weekend.
“It wasn’t a high-quality performance but we put our heart and soul into it and the important thing was that we got the three points,” said Martinez to DAZN.
“That was important after the defeat last week which hurt us, but we’re still in it, we’re still on our feet and focussed on winning every game.”
Genoa have been revitalised since Patrick Vieira took charge in November, sitting nine points above the relegation zone in 12th, and looked good for a point before Martinez’s scrappy winner.
Before then the closest Inter had come to scoring was in the 70th minute when Nicolo Barella crashed a shot from outside the area off the bar.
And moments later Inter needed reserve goalkeeper Josep Martinez, in for the injured Yann Sommer, to pull off a superb save to deny Caleb Ekuban from nodding home a shock opener from point-blank range at a corner.
Milan slump
AC Milan’s troubles continued with a 2-1 defeat at Torino in which the seven-time European champions conceded a bizarre own goal and had a penalty saved.
Sergio Conceicao’s Milan sit seventh, six points from Lazio and the Champions League positions after Gvidas Gineitis hit them with a sucker punch with 14 minutes remaining.
Milan thought they had set up a grandstand finish just two minutes before when Tijjani Reijnders classily struck his 12th goal of the season in all competitions and cancelled out the unfortunate Malick Thiaw’s early own goal.
Thiaw was left dumbfounded in the fifth minute when his goalkeeper Mike Maignan came charging out to clear the ball only to thump it against the Germany defender’s back, from where it ricocheted into his own net.
Milan’s night went from bad to worse in the 33rd minute when Christian Pulisic failed to score from the penalty spot for the first time in his career, after the away side were gifted a chance to level by Marcus Pedersen’s handball.
Vanja Milinkovic-Savic’s lightning reactions saw him save his fourth spot-kick of the season, and it took a sensational strike from Reijnders to beat the Serbia goalkeeper who was brilliant all match.
But just as Milan were set to push for the win, Antonio Sanabria caught the Milan defence napping by quickly taking a free-kick and feeding Gineitis for his second goal of the campaign.
“Sometimes I ask myself how it’s possible… Torino were leading at half-time without having a shot on goal,” said Conceicao.
“The best player on the pitch was the Torino goalkeeper as we must have had 30 shots on goal… Any team would suffer conceding such daft goals.”
The almost comical nature of Milan’s loss comes after they were dumped out of the Champions League by Feyenoord on Tuesday, largely due to Theo Hernandez being sent off for two bookings.
Milan can however stay in touch with the top four if they win Thursday’s game in hand at Bologna, who were beaten 2-0 at Cristian Chivu’s Parma.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)
