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Inter Milan thump Torino to maintain Serie A advantage

Inter Milan's sterling defense of their Serie A title continued on Sunday as the champions blitzed Torino 4-0 at the San Siro.

That, coupled with Roma's 1-1 draw at Livorno, opened up Inter's lead at the top of the table to five points, with third-placed Juventus, who beat Atalanta 1-0 at home, a further three points back.

Just as they did a year ago, Inter are setting a fierce pace, though last season they were helped by the penalties handed out to several of their most likely rivals over the matchfixing scandal.

They are unbeaten after 15 games, already have 37 points and look totally dominant.

Inter were given a huge helping hand to take the lead seven minutes before the break when the referee pointed to the spot for a supposed foul on Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Ibrahimovic had broken into the area and was about to pull the trigger when Gianluca Comotto arrived at the last second to make a goal-saving block. Ibrahimovic slumped theatrically to the turf and was lucky to have a spot-kick awarded.

The Sweden forward dusted himself down to stroke the ball home from 12m, low to goalkeeper Matteo Sereni's left.

If there was a huge slice of fortune about the first goal, the next two were down to pure class.

Romanian center-back Christian Chivu burst forward from his holding midfield role five minutes after the break and chipped a delicate cross into the box, where Argentine striker Julio Cruz arrived at pace to thump home a header from 6m.

And two minutes after that, Chile midfielder Luis Jimenez pounced on a defensive mix-up to arrow a rasping drive into the top far corner from 25m out at an angle.

Colombian center-back Ivan Cordoba rounded off the scoring late on with a close-range header.

Roma were off to a dream start at resurgent Livorno as Daniele De Rossi capitalized on a goalkeeping error to head home Brazilian midfielder Rodrigo Taddei's corner on five minutes.

But the lead lasted barely 60 seconds before former Spain forward Diego Tristan twisted and turned Brazil center-back Juan inside out before squeezing a shot across Brazilian goalkeeper Doni.

De Rossi lamented Inter's seemingly unstoppable march to the title.

Former Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved scored a stunning goal with a curling right-foot shot from distance five minutes from time to earn Juventus a vital win over plucky Atalanta.

The most entertaining game of the day was Udinese's 3-2 win over Sampdoria in a match between two teams chasing a top-four finish and a place in next season's Champions League.

Antonio Di Natale opened the scoring for hosts Udinese before goals from Claudio Bellucci, from the spot, and Christian Maggio gave Sampdoria the edge. But Fabio Quagliarella scored a second-half brace to earn Udinese the three points.

Young striker Nicola Pozzi scored four goals to lift Empoli off the bottom of the table in a 4-1 rout of Cagliari, who now find themselves propping up Serie A.
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