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Inter Milan extend lead atop Serie A to 11 points

Inter Milan took another huge step closer to the Italian title after extending their lead at the top of Serie A to 11 points on Saturday.

Defending champions Inter saw off Livorno 2-0 at the San Siro while closest challengers Roma lost 1-0 at third-place Juventus.

There was also disappointment for AC Milan, who could not provide veteran defender Paolo Maldini with a victory on his 1,000th match in professional soccer as they drew 0-0 at lowly Parma.

Honduran forward David Suazo scored both Inter goals within four minutes of each other in the first half.

Inter had rested first-choice strike pair Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Julio Cruz ahead of their midweek Champions League trip to Liverpool, giving Suazo and Argentine Hernan Crespo a rare start up front.

France captain Patrick Vieira was suspended and Chilean midfield playmaker Luis Jimenez was out injured but it made no difference as Inter proved too powerful for opponents who only three days earlier had come away from the San Siro with a 1-1 draw against Milan.

Inter coach Roberto Mancini turned his attentions to the Liverpool match tomorrow, but refused to get carried away by the English team's embarrassing FA Cup defeat to second tier Barnsley on Saturday.

"The important thing was to win and now we can concentrate on the Champions League," Mancini said.

Inter had the game sewn up after 18 minutes as Suazo headed home a delightful inswinging free-kick from Romanian center-back Cristian Chivu.

He was then on hand to tap home the loose ball after two defenders got in each other's way and failed to clear a cross from Brazilian left-back Maxwell, who had done well to skip past two challenges and get to the byline.

Inter have won 18 and drawn just five of their 23 matches this season.

They also have the best attack and the meanest defense.

Roma missed the chance to keep pace with the champions as veteran Juve forward Alessandro Del Piero's bullet free-kick on the stroke of half-time settled the match.

"We knew we could play a great match and that's exactly what we did," the match-winner said.

It means Juve are just one point behind Roma in third now and will rest up in midweek as Roma tackle Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Del Piero rifled an unstopppable shot into the top corner after Czech winger Pavel Nedved had drawn a foul from French center-back Philippe Mexes just more than 20m from goal.
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