The Pressure Shows Up Early
Lautaro Martinez returned from injury and reminded everyone exactly what Inter Milan had been missing. He scored in the second minute and the 52nd minute at San Siro, and Inter routed Roma 5-2 on Sunday to end a four-match winless streak across all competitions.
Hakan Calhanoglu, fresh off helping Turkey qualify for the World Cup, Marcus Thuram and Nicolò Barella also found the net for Inter. Gianluca Mancini, who along with Barella was part of the Italy team that failed to qualify for the World Cup, briefly equalized for Roma. Lorenzo Pellegrini pulled one back late for the Giallorossi after they had gone four goals behind.
The table did the dramatic work without asking anyone to dress it up.
Inter had seen its advantage sliced from 10 to six points before the international break. The victory moved the club nine points ahead of city rival AC Milan and 10 ahead of defending champion Napoli, which hosts Milan on Monday.
The Detail That Tilts It
Bologna won 2-1 at relegation-threatened Cremonese to move up to eighth before hosting Aston Villa in the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday. Joao Mario and Jonathan Rowe scored early for Bologna before Federico Bonazzoli converted a penalty late for Cremonese. Youssef Maleh of Cremonese and Lewis Ferguson of Bologna were each sent off in stoppage time. Cremonese was without former Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, who sat out due to a muscle injury.
Torino won 1-0 at last-place Pisa with an 80th-minute goal from Che Adams.