MILAN, April 4: Inter Milan halted its poor run of form in the best possible way by beating fierce rival Juventus 1-0 to boost its Serie A title chances and hinder its opponent’s own hopes on Sunday.
Hakan Çalhanoğlu converted a penalty at the second time of asking in first-half stoppage time. Defending champion Inter moved to within three points of leaders AC Milan and Napoli.
Juventus hit the woodwork twice and had 23 shots compared to just five for Inter in one of the Bianconeri’s best matches of the season, but it remained fourth and slipped four points below Inter.
Juventus was unbeaten in 16 consecutive league matches and started brightly in Turin, with three early opportunities including Giorgio Chiellini hitting the underside of the crossbar.
However, it was Inter which broke the deadlock on the stroke of halftime after Juventus forward Álvaro Morata fouled Denzel Dumfries just inside the area.
Çalhanoğlu’s first attempt was saved by Wojciech Szczęsny but – after a VAR check – it was ordered to be retaken because of encroachment and the Inter forward buried his second chance into the bottom left corner.
Atalanta vs Napoli
Lorenzo Insigne scored one and set up another to help Napoli move level with Milan at the top of the table.
Insigne converted a penalty and provided the assist for a Matteo Politano volley to give them a comfortable halftime lead.
Marten de Roon got Atalanta back into the match in the 58th minute but Eljif Elmas sealed the result nine minutes from time following a swift counterattack.
Napoli is below Milan on head-to-head record.
José Mourinho’s Roma moved to within five points of the top four after winning at Sampdoria 1-0.
Other results
Beto bagged a hat trick to help Udinese recover to beat Cagliari 5-1 in a relegation fight.
Udinese moved 11 points above the relegation zone. Cagliari, whose midfielder Alberto Grassi was sent off, remained three points above the drop.
Fiorentina beat 10-man Empoli 1-0, with Nicolás González heading in a free kick seconds after Sebastiano Luperto was sent off. (AP)
