Inter Milan snatched a dramatic 3-2 win over AC Milan in Sunday’s derby thanks to a last-minute penalty from Mauro Icardi, who completed his hat-trick and condemned their gallant opponents to a third successive league defeat.
Milan twice hit back to equalise but were sent tail-spinning towards a crisis after defender Ricardo Rodriguez hauled down Danilo D‘Ambrosio at a corner in an off-the-ball incident and Icardi converted his ninth league goal of the season.
Inter’s win kept them second and unbeaten in Serie A with 22 points from eight games, two behind leaders Napoli who have a 100 percent record following their win at AS Roma on Saturday.
Milan, on the other hand, have dropped to tenth with four wins and four defeats – far below the level expected of a side who spent more than 200 million euros ($236.3 million) in the close season.
Inter went ahead in the 28th minute when Antonio Candreva, who had already hit the crossbar, delivered an inviting low cross from the right and Icardi got between Milan’s two central defenders to steer the ball into the net.
Suso equalised in the 56th minute, curling a left-foot shot into the bottom corner from 20 metres.
They were level for only seven minutes until Icardi robbed Lucas Biglia of the ball in midfield and fed Ivan Perisic, who got to the byline and pulled it back to the middle where the Inter captain managed to guide it into the net.
Milan levelled for the second time with nine minutes left after Samir Handanovic parried Giacomo Bonaventura’s shot onto to post and the ball rebounded back onto the Slovenian goalkeeper and into the net.
But they had no reply to Icardi’s third goal, the Argentine sending Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way from the spot.
Genoa managed their first league win of the season at the eighth attempt when they took advantage of slack defending to beat Cagliari 3-2.
First-half goals from Andrey Galabinov and Adel Taarabt gave Genoa a 2-0 half-time lead.
Leonardo Pavoletti pulled one back three minutes after the break, but Luca Rigoni restored Genoa’s two-goal lead and they held on despite Joao Pedro converting a penalty for the Sardinians which was awarded with the help of the video assistant referee (VAR).
Lorenzo De Silvestri headed in from a corner in the second minute of stoppage time as Torino twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Crotone, leaving them eighth with 13 points.
Sampdoria and Bologna each have 14 points after both sides won, Sampdoria coming back from a goal down at half-time to beat Atalanta 3-1 and Bologna overcoming SPAL 2-1 in the first top flight derby between the pair for 50 years.
Fiorentina striker Cyril Thereau scored twice to give them a 2-1 win over his former club Udinese, while Sassuolo and Chievo drew 0-0. (Reuters)
