Inter Milan's Denzel Dumfries celebrates scoring his team's fourth goal during an Italian Serie A match against Lazio on Monday. Defending champion Inter stormed to a 6-0 win. REUTERS
Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi has praised his players for standing up to host Lazio in a challenging opening half hour on Monday, before turning in one of the club's most dominant performances in Serie A.
Lazio showed greater determination at the start, but the defending champion grew into the game and stormed to a 6-0 win, scoring quick-fire goals either side of halftime in a superb display that silenced the Stadio Olimpico.
"In the first 25 minutes, we were good at keeping our distance with a Lazio team that played well technically," Inzaghi told a news conference.
"We then grew a lot technically, too. We managed to score two goals, and the third at the start of the second half, closing out a game against a team of absolute value penalized by absences and injuries. We had some players out, too, but I'm happy."
Lazio was without suspended forward Valentin Castellanos, as well as injured defender Alessio Romagnoli and midfielder Matias Vecino, while Inter was missing defenders Francesco Acerbi and Benjamin Pavard.
"We were playing against a team that won 16 out of (its previous) 22 games (in all competitions), and when they lost, they didn't deserve it," Inzaghi added.
"We needed a game of great pace and determination, and we did it, because the Italian championship always puts so many pitfalls in front of you."
For the first time in Inter's history, six different players were on the scoresheet in a league away fixture, as Hakan Calhanoglu, Federico Dimarco, Nicolo Barella, Denzel Dumfries, Carlos Augusto and Marcus Thuram all found the net.
Three of them — Dumfries, Dimarco and Calhanoglu — ended the game with a goal and an assist.
"Going into individual performances after a display like that is not easy," Inzaghi said.
"(Stefan) De Vrij ... has extraordinary consistency, Lautaro (Martinez) had a great game, for me it is as if he had scored a goal. He was very happy in the dressing room, he must continue to work like this and he will get satisfaction."
Inter increased the pressure at the top of the table as it sits third on 34 points, three points off Atalanta and a point behind Napoli with a game in hand on the top two. Fourth-placed Fiorentina and Lazio in fifth are three points behind Inter.
"We must continue like this. It is a very balanced championship, with many teams that are on a positive streak," Inzaghi added.
Tight schedule ahead
Inter has an Italian Cup tie with Udinese on Thursday and league fixtures against Como and Cagliari, before it jets off to Saudi Arabia, where it will face Atalanta in the semifinals 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," added Inzaghi.
An unexpectedly heavy defeat for Lazio, who came into Monday's showdown off the back of fine away wins at Napoli and Ajax, left it fifth and six points behind Atalanta.
Any ideas of Lazio being a dark horse for a first league title in a quarter of a century were also dented, as Marco Baroni's side crumbled once Calhanoglu rammed home the penalty that 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" said Lazio boss Baroni.
"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."
The awarding of Inter's spot-kick, for a Samuel Gigot handball following a VAR check, came just after Inter had a goal chalked off for offside during the same penalty box melee, and angered Lazio.
The host, which had been the better side in the opening half hour, was punished for lax defending when Dimarco volleyed home a brilliant second four minutes later, after sneaking in unmarked at the back post to meet Dumfries' pinpoint cross.
Any hope of a second-half fightback was ended when Barella smashed in his third goal of the season from distance in the 51st minute and Dumfries capitalized on more poor Lazio defending two minutes later with a bullet of a header.
In the 77th minute, Augusto became the evening's third Inter wing-back to score, when he expertly controlled Dimarco's pass to spin past Adam Marusic and calmly slot home his side's fifth.
Thuram's brilliant individual strike wasn't just a slap in the face for Lazio, it also made Inter the Serie A top scorer ahead of Atalanta, and emphatically showed that it won't give up its title easily.
Agencies
