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Inter beat Spezia to leapfrog Milan and claim Serie A summit / Photo: Alberto PIZZOLI - AFP
NYSE - LSE
Inter beat Spezia to leapfrog Milan and claim Serie A summit
Inter Milan moved top of Serie A on Friday with a 3-1 win at Spezia which lifted the champions into first place above AC Milan.
Inter are a point ahead their local rivals thanks to Marcel Brozovic's superb first-time finish half an hour into the match on the Italian Riviera, a neat flick from Lautaro Martinez in the 73rd minute and an Alexis Sanchez goal deep in stoppage time.
However Milan, who are reportedly to be sold to Bahrain based investment firm Investcorp, will reclaim the summit later on Friday if they beat struggling Genoa at the San Siro.
A third straight win for Simone Inzaghi's side confirmed their revival after a tricky February and March, and left Spezia in 15th, some 11 points above the relegation zone.
Napoli, who host in-form Roma on Monday evening are three points behind Inter in third while Juve are a further four back ahead of their home match with Bologna on Saturday.
"Today it was really important to win. We're very happy but we need to carry on like this," Brozovic told DAZN.
"We're a good team, we've got six matches to go and we need to win all of them."
Brozovic opened the scoring for the away side with his first league goal of the season, and it was a spectacular effort for the man who makes Inter tick.
The Croatia midfielder met Danilo D'Ambrosio's knockdown with a beautiful left-foot shot which flew past Ivan Provedel and set Inter on the road to victory.
Martin Erlic flashed a header just wide shortly after the break but Inter missed some good chances before Martinez doubled their lead.
The worst miss came in the 49th minute, when the otherwise excellent Ivan Perisic snatched the ball off Edin Dzeko's feet just as the Bosnian was set to slam in the second.
Denzel Dumfries smashed over from close range but Martinez netted his 15th league goal of the season when he met Perisic's inswinging cross and clipped home the second.
Giulio Maggiore pulled a goal back with a superb shot with two minutes remaining but Sanchez rolled home Martinez's cross in the final seconds to make sure of the win to give Inter the temporary lead in Italy's four-way title race.
(A.Lehmann--BBZ)
