MILAN, Sep 17: Inter Milan has a new star player with a familiar name in Serie A as Marcus Thuram helped the Nerazzurri beat fierce rival AC Milan 5-1 in a derby match on Saturday to maintain their perfect start to the season.
Thuram’s father Lilian, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, played as a defender for Parma and Juventus.
Thuram scored a superb goal to double Inter’s lead shortly before halftime, having had a significant hand in the fifth-minute opener.
That was netted by Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who also scored Inter’s third after Rafael Leao had got Milan back into the game amid a torrential downpour at San Siro.
Former Milan midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu added a penalty 11 minutes from time and Davide Frattesi capped a great night for Inter in stoppage time.
It was Thuram’s second Inter goal in as many matches. He also has three assists in his four matches since joining on a free transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach.
Inter is now the only team to have won its four opening matches and the Nerazzurri moved two points ahead of Juventus, which beat Lazio 3-1 earlier.
Milan is three points behind Inter.
Milan has now lost its last five derbies and this latest defeat to Inter was its heaviest against its bitter rival in 14 years.
Napoli fight back
Rudi Garcia’s substitutions helped Napoli avoid a second successive loss.
Matteo Politano was brought on at halftime and Giacomo Raspadori 13 minutes later.
Raspadori gave Napoli a chance of rescuing a point when he netted in the 76th minute, and Politano volleyed in the equalizer with six minutes remaining.
Goals from Mattia Bani and Mateo Retegui either side of halftime had given newly promoted Genoa hope of a famous win over the Italian champion.
Retegui has four goals in five matches for Genoa.
Unbeaten Juve
Dusan Vlahovic struck twice to help ensure a convincing win for Juventus and take his tally to four goals in the opening four matches.
Vlahovic opened the scoring in the 10th minute when he volleyed in Manuel Locatelli’s cross and Federico Chiesa doubled Juve’s lead 16 minutes later with his third goal of the season.
Luis Alberto pulled one back for Lazio in the 64th but Vlahovic doubled his tally three minutes later with a fantastic solo effort as he chested down United States international Weston McKennie’s long ball and fired into the far bottom corner.
McKennie had also had a part to play in Juve’s other two goals.
Juventus remained unbeaten while it was Lazio’s third loss. (AP)
