Inter are hot on the heels of Serie A leaders Atalanta BC after crushing SS Lazio 6-0 in Rome on Monday to demolish one of the division’s form teams and send a message to the rest of the league.
Reigning champions Inter came through what was supposed to be a tough test at the Stadio Olimpico with flying colors and are three points off the Scudetto pace with a game in hand.
Simone Inzaghi’s side sealed the points with goals equally distributed either side of halftime from Hakan Calhanoglu, Federico Dimarco, Nicolo Barella and Denzel Dumfries, before Carlos Augusto and Marcus Thuram completed the rout with two late strikes.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It’s three-and-a-half years that these boys have given me this level of commitment and I’m proud to be their manager,” Inzaghi told DAZN.
Inter have an Italian Cup tie with Udinese tomorrow and league fixtures against Como and Cagliari before jetting off to Saudi Arabia, where they face Atalanta in the semi-finals of the Italian Super Cup on Jan. 2.
“It’s going to be complicated, but I hope we put in the same effort and level of performance like the one tonight,” Inzaghi added.
An unexpectedly heavy defeat for Lazio, who came into Monday’s showdown off the back of fine away wins at SSC Napoli and Ajax, left them fifth and six points behind Atalanta.
It also damaged any ideas of Lazio being dark horses for a first league title in a quarter of a century as Marco Baroni’s side crumbled once Calhanoglu rammed home the penalty, which opened the scoring in the 41st minute.
“I’m sorry for our supporters and I take responsibility for the defeat. We played well for the first 40 minutes but then collapsed, we fell apart” Lazio coach Baroni said. “We did things that you just can’t do against a team like Inter and that means I didn’t do a good enough job.”
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