Tue, Feb 09, 2010 page18

• LEGA CAICIO : Inter crush Cagliari, AC Milan held

  IMPERIOUS INTER Following the champion’s emphatic victory at the San Siro, Roma leapfrogged Milan into second when they extended their unbeaten run to 19 games

  • AFP
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  Inter continued their inexorable march toward a fifth straight Serie A title when they crushed Cagliari 3-0 at the San Siro, while AC Milan were held to a 0-0 draw at Bologna on Sunday.

  That allowed AS Roma to leapfrog Milan into second as they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 19 games with a crucial 1-0 success at Fiorentina.

  Although Inter’s lead was pegged back to eight points, they have a game in hand over Roma and are 10 points ahead of third-placed Milan.

  

  Fiorentina’s Stevan Jovetic, front, performs an overhead-kick in front of AS Roma’s Philippe Mexes during their Serie A match in Florence, Italy, on Sunday.

  PHOTO: AFP

  Ahead of the Milan derby two weeks ago, the Serie A title race seemed to be alive and kicking with Milan knowing a victory would have left them three points behind with a game in hand, but they lost that and drew their next two games, leaving the champions to creep over the hill and out of sight.

  Goals from Goran Pandev, Walter Samuel and Diego Milito earned Jose Mourinho’s Inter the three points against Cagliari that gave them a seemingly unassailable lead.

  It left Mourinho reflecting on a profitable month.

  “It’s an important victory because it puts us 10 points clear of second place,” he said prior to Roma’s win. “We developed a lot of confidence in January and today [Sunday] we began with a confident and attacking mentality. Cagliari aren’t an easy team to play and even when 2-0 down, they didn’t let up and created some problems, but we were solid and compact and Pandev had a great game.”

  There was an ominous feel to the game when Inter took the lead after just six minutes.

  Captain Javier Zanetti made a typically purposeful burst down the right flank, breaking into the box and pulling the ball back for Samuel Eto’o, playing his first game since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations. The Cameroon hit man’s poor shot hit two defenders, however, before falling invitingly into Pandev’s path, the Macedonian slotting home at the near post.

  On 20 minutes it seemed to be game, set and match as centerback Samuel rose in the box to head home a Maicon corner for 2-0.

  Yet Cagliari could, and possibly should, have gone into the break level. Alessandro Matri had a goal wrongly disallowed on 34 minutes when, although he was marginally offside as the ball was played through to him, television replays showed that it was Inter fullback Davide Santon’s touch that sent him in on Julio Cesar. Two minutes later, it was Julio Cesar who stunningly kept Cagliari off the score sheet as he made a reaction save from Brazilian countryman Nene’s acrobatic volley from close range.

  Any hopes Cagliari had were wiped out two minutes after the restart following a brilliant goal by Inter that saw Pandev feed Eto’o on the edge of the Sardinians’ box, take the return pass and slip in Milito, who took a touch and then slid the ball low into the corner.

  AS Roma’s Mirko Vucinic scored the only goal of their game against Fiorentina eight minutes from time as Claudio Ranieri’s men took their recent run to 16 wins and three draws in their last 19.

  Only twice before have Roma teams been on longer unbeaten runs, with Fabio Capello’s 2003-2004 team managing 20 games, while the record of 35 matches dates from the early 1980s when Nils Liedholm was in charge.

  AC Milan labored to a draw in Bologna, with loan signing from Inter Mancini failing to impress on his debut.

  Ronaldinho came closest to breaking the deadlock when he hit the bar with a bicycle-kick in the second half and in stoppage-time captain Massimo Ambrosini also hit the bar with a header.

  Leonardo said he had no complaints with his team, but already he seemed to be throwing in the towel.

  “I think things [in the league] are very clear. Inter have been winning for a few years with a solid foundation,” Leonardo said. “I can’t remember another team that managed to win so much for so many years in a row.”

  Antonio Di Natale scored a hat-trick for hosts Udinese in a 3-1 win as they ended Walter Mazzarri’s 15-match unbeaten league run since taking over at Napoli in October.

  Napoli’s Cristian Maggio had an eventful game, giving away a penalty, scoring and then being sent off before halftime.

  Also on Sunday, it was Atalanta 1, Bari 0; Genoa 1, Chievo 0; SS Lazio 0, Catania 1; and Siena 1, Sampdoria 2.

  Italian Serie A

  	Team	P	GD	PTS
  1	Inter	22	29	52
  2	AS Roma	23	12	44
  3	AC Milan	22	14	42
  4	Napoli	23	5	38
  5	Palermo	23	5	37
  6	Sampdoria	23	-1	36
  7	Juventus	23	5	35
  8	Genoa	23	0	35
  9	Cagliari	22	5	32
  10	Bari	23	5	32
  11	Fiorentina	22	3	31
  12	Chievo	23	-1	29
  13	Parma	22	-6	29
  14	Bologna	23	-7	25
  15	Udinese	22	-3	24
  16	Catania	23	-7	23
  17	Livorno	23	-16	23
  18	SS Lazio	23	-7	22
  19	Atalanta	23	-13	20
  20	Siena	23	-22	13

   
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