Inter Milan Go Top of Serie A With Slender Win Over AS Roma

Inter Milan edged Roma 1-0 on Saturday to snatch top spot in Serie A while Colombian winger Juan Cuadrado hit an injury-time winner to give champions Juventus a 2-1 win over city rivals Torino 2-1.

Chilean defender Gary Medel scored the only goal of the game at the San Siro on the half-hour mark with a long-range drive which beat Roma keeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Roma, who had been top at the start of the day after five successive wins, had chances to salvage a point but were denied by a string of fine saves from Samir Handanovic in the Inter goal.

Roma’s misery was compounded by a red card for Bosnia star Miralem Pjanic after 73 minutes.

In the Turin derby, Paul Pogba put Juventus in front after 19 minutes but Cesare Bovo looked to have saved a point for Torino early in the second period.

However, substitute Cuadrado, on loan from Chelsea, grabbed the winning goal which lifted Juventus into 10th spot, nine points behind Inter.

Juventus went into the match sitting in 12th place, with coach Massimiliano Allegri coming under intense pressure following some poor recent results.

“We had 12 points after 10 rounds, so tension was only natural,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.

“The team reacted well, obviously we have to improve a lot, but this was a small step forward.”

For their part, the visitors a – who won the last time these sides met back in May -a were buoyed by the fact they entered the clash above Juve in the table for the first time since 1993.

However, Torino boss Giampiero Ventura had a lengthy injury list to contend with, missing Danilo Avelar, Alexander Farnerud, Alessandro Gazzi, Pontus Jansson, Joel Obi, Nikola Maksimovic and Josef Martinez.

Allegri took the bold decision to drop Cuadrado to the bench and hand a start to Hernanes, though the former would enter the game early in the first half following an injury to Sami Khedira.

Elsewhere for the hosts, Andrea Barzagli slid into central defence to cover for Giorgio Chiellini, with the latter suspended following his red card in the midweek loss to Sassuolo.

Just before the 20-minute mark, Juventus were in front.

Paulo Dybala allowed a pass from Cuadrado to run beyond him to Pogba, and the French midfielder fired a first time effort beyond Daniele Padelli into the back of the net.

It was a well-taken goal that saw Pogba begin to put his recent poor form behind him, and the strike marked Juvea s earliest goal of the season thus far, while providing the ideal way for the 22-year-old to mark his 100th Serie A appearance for the club.

Juventus dominated the rest of the of the first half, although Leonardo Bonucci had to be alert to block a good effort from Fabio Quagliarella just before the break, the former Juve striker having previously narrowly missed with an earlier attempt.

Torino returned for the second 45 minutes in much more determined fashion, earning a free-kick on the edge of the box shortly after the restart which helped pull them level.

Bovo saw his initial effort blocked, before following up with a left-footed shot that Juve goalkeeper Gigi Buffon was powerless to prevent.

Minutes later, the captain made a fine save from a Kamil Glik header, while both Pogba and Hernanes had long range shots for Juve which failed to find the target.

The game appeared to be petering out into a draw after Bonucci turned a free kick onto the crossbar and Claudio Marchisio saw his effort blocked from the rebound, but there was late drama to follow.

Pogba stole into the Torino area deep into injury time, and Cuadrado bundled the ball home on the goal line to clinch all three points.

“The truth is that we fought hard to the end and when you work this hard, the results do come,” said Cuadrado.

By AFP