Inter Milan won Sunday’s highly anticipated Serie A title match against Juventus 1-0, putting them four points ahead of their closest rivals for the Scudetto.
Simone Inzaghi’s side won a difficult match at the San Siro thanks to Federico Gatti’s own goal eight minutes before halftime.
Home fans packed the stadium for the season’s biggest match, roaring in delight as Inter put daylight between themselves and Juventus with their sixth consecutive win in all competitions.
Inter also has a game in hand—at home against Atalanta at the end of the month—which gives them a significant edge as they prepare for a challenging run of fixtures, including a Champions League last-16 encounter with Atletico Madrid. They also visited Riyadh last month to win the Italian Super Cup.
Juventus is free of cup and European distractions.
The two leading goalscorers in Serie A, Lautaro Martinez and Dusan Vlahovic, were on the San Siro field, but it was the unfortunate Gatti who supplied the deciding touch.
Inter made the majority of the running but ran into a black and white wall as Juventus set up to frustrate the hosts and hit them on the break.
Marcus Thuram believed he was about to put Inter ahead midway through the first half, but Bremer nipped in to deflect Federico Dimarco’s low cross away from his feet.
Juve rarely ventured outside their own half, although Vlahovic could have put Juve ahead shortly after if he hadn’t miscontrolled the ball following Weston McKennie’s strong run upfield.
However, Inter had a lucky break in the 37th minute when Nicolo Barella’s cross deflected over the line off Gatti’s stomach after missing both Benjamin Pavard and Thuram.
The second half was significantly quicker paced, with both teams exchanging half-chances until Wojciech Szczesny’s superb reaction save stopped Barella from close range in the 69th minute.
The Juventus goalkeeper performed another miracle with four minutes remaining, stopping Marko Arnautovic from converting Denzel Dumfries’ brilliant low cross, but Inter had done enough to secure a massive victory.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored a stunning goal to lead Napoli to a 2-1 victory over struggling Verona.
Georgian hero Kvaratskhelia curled home a long-range strike with three minutes remaining at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to secure a comeback victory.
Walter Mazzarri’s squad is seventh and was just one point away from Italy’s Champions League spots before fourth-placed Atalanta defeated Lazio 3-1.
“Winning like that is a great feeling…” But, in truth, it would have been preferable to establish an early lead and complete the task without suffering as much,” Mazzarri told DAZN following another disappointing performance by his team.
With 11 minutes remaining, Cyril Ngonge equal Diego Coppola’s opener, his first goal for the southern club since joining from Verona last month.
Napoli is certainly in contention for Champions League football, although the top four was not their goal following their spectacular Scudetto victory last season.
Next weekend, Napoli will travel to the San Siro to face AC Milan, a challenging journey for a squad that has only won four league games since Mazzarri replaced Rudi Garcia in November.