Milan, November 6, 2022 (AFP) – Juventus beat fierce rivals Inter Milan 2-0 on Sunday to move into sight of the top four in Serie A, while Felipe Anderson led the Lazio to a 1-0 victory in the first Rome derby of the season. .
Juve have spent most of the season lurching from one disaster to another, but French midfielder Rabiot’s brilliant opening goal five minutes after half-time and a late, deflected shot from youngster Nicolo Fagioli earned them their fourth successive league victory.
Massimiliano Allegri’s team, which was without Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic, is fifth in Italy’s top flight and two points behind Lazio and Atalanta in the bottom two Champions League places.
Inter are a point behind Juve in seventh after their fifth loss of the season, which came after squandering a promising first half full of chances.
Rabiot’s first goal came after some excellent play by the impressive Filip Kostic, and five minutes later Wojciech Szczesny fired a piledriver at Hakan Calhanoglu against the crossbar, one of a number of chances Inter had to take the lead before being left behind. behind.
Edin Dzeko headed wide from inches in the 27th minute, the Bosnian not ready for Lautaro Martinez’s corner kick, but the worst miss came three minutes before halftime.
Denzel Dumfries looked sure to score when he ran unmarked into Nicolo Barella’s cross but somehow skimmed what looked like a simple finish.
And after Danilo had a Juve goal disallowed for a handball following a VAR review in the 65th minute, Martinez drove a poor low shot straight into Szczesny at the end of a quick counter-attack.
Fagioli then sealed the points with five minutes to go after the Kostic fed him to give Juve hope that their recent troubles might be coming to an end.
Lazio’s bragging rights
Anderson scored Lazio’s winning goal just before half an hour in the Italian capital after Roma defender Roger Ibanez gave the ball away cheaply in his own area under pressure from Pedro.
It was the 29-year-old’s third league goal of the campaign as he continues to play in the unfamiliar position of centre-forward in place of the injured Ciro Immobile.
Italian striker Immobile was on the bench supporting Lazio despite a thigh problem preventing him from playing, and saw his team go third with a confident performance.
“Immobile has been with us the entire time, even through training camp… He’s a leader and I’m playing a role where he’s a master,” Anderson told DAZN.
Known for his expansive style of football, Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri has developed a side that is difficult to beat and, devoid of key man Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, absorbed Roma’s largely ineffective attack and he managed a seventh clean sheet in his last eight games. .
Roma were the nominal home team at the Stadio Olimpico, but came closest to scoring four minutes after trailing when Nicolo Zaniolo’s deflected shot hit the crossbar.
José Mourinho’s side failed to create enough to deserve a win and drop to sixth after their fourth loss of the season.
“We didn’t have that bit of quality that the best players bring, we were missing something,” Mourinho told DAZN.
The Verona crisis continues
Earlier, Verona fell to the bottom of Serie A on Sunday after losing 2-0 at promoted Monza, their eighth successive loss.
Second-half goals from Carlos Augusto and Andrea Colpani gave Monza their first win in four matches and left Verona down to 10 men with five points from 13 matches.
They are one point behind Sampdoria, who lost 2-0 at home to Fiorentina, and Cremonese, who drew 2-2 at Salernitana on Saturday.
Monza remains in 15th place but is seven points clear of the relegation zone in its first season in Serie A and was cheered in the stands by stabbing victim Pablo Mari.
Arsenal defender Mari on loan was one of several people attacked last week at a Carrefour supermarket on the outskirts of Milan by a man who killed a supermarket employee after grabbing a knife from a shelf.