Inter back on track with win at Atalanta

ROME: Inter Milan, which had seen its once seemingly invincible 11-point Serie A lead whittled down to just one, stopped the rot on Sunday with a 2-0 win at Atalanta to go four points clear with six games left.

Inter was under pressure having won only two of its last 9 matches in all competitions and being knocked out of the Champions League.

On Saturday, it had seen AS Roma beat Genoa 3-2 which left it with a slender one-point advantage to take to Atalanta, which enjoyed an impressive 2-1 victory at AC Milan last week.

But Inter responded in style and shrugged off the inury-enforced absences of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Suazo to take the victory.

French international skipper Patrick Vieira headed the defending champions into a 21st-minute lead despite protests by Atalanta that its defender Massimiliano Pellegrino had been impeded.

Seventeen-year-old Mario Balotelli then celebrated his Serie A debut with a 74th-minute goal after using his lightning pace to evade his defenders.

The win was Inter's first in four matches following two draws and a defeat and represented its first victory away from the San Siro since February 10.

"Roma's wins didn't worry us," said Inter coach Roberto Mancini.

"Generally speaking, titles are won with a one or two-point difference. Now there are fewer and fewer matches to play to play and we have a four-point lead.

"If we keep playing like this and winning there won't be any problems."

Juventus remains in third place, 10 points off Roma with one game in hand, despite going down 3-2 in a thriller away to mid-table Palermo.

The Sicilian side took a 2-0 lead after two goals from Brazilian Amauri.

Alessandro del Piero hit back with a brace of his own, but Mattia Cassani hit a spectacular last-minute winner for Palermo, pushing it up to 12th in the table on 39 points.

Fiorentina is just two points adrift of Juve in fourth place, the final Champions League qualifying place, after a 2-0 win at home over Reggina to stay 4 points clear of AC Milan, who defeated Cagliari 3-1 on Saturday.

Giampaolo Pazzini scored the opener in the 23rd minute with Adrian Mutu making sure of the three points in injury time.

On Saturday, Roma, which slumped to a 2-0 Champions League defeat to Manchester United at the Stadio Olimpico in midweek, stormed into a 2-0 lead within the first 17 minutes before Genoa leveled with two goals in the space of a minute in the second half.

However, a Daniele De Rossi penalty 10 minutes from time secured the three points, which will send Roma to Manchester next week for its Champions League quarterfinal second leg clash in good heart.

Roma, still without injured talismanic skipper Francesco Totti, was in front after 14 minutes when Brazilian import Taddei scored from a cross by Max Tonnetto.

Montenegro international Mirko Vucinic made it 2-0 with a 20-m drive three minutes later as Roma threatened to run riot.

However, the second half witnessed a turnaround with Marco Rossi pulling a goal back in the 58th minute after Roma keeper Doni failed to gather a shot from Serie A top-scorer Marco Borriello.

Honduran international Julio Cesar Leon then leveled at 2-2 just moments later.

But just as Genoa threatened to clinch the three points, Roma was handed a lifeline when Borriello brought down Taddei and De Rossi converted the penalty.

AC Milan kept up its push for Champions League qualification with a 3-1 win over relegation-threatened Cagliari.

AFP

(China Daily 04/08/2008 page22)