Serie A: Inter Milan thrash Cagliari to go on top of the Serie A standings as AC Milan and Napoli both drop crucial points

(Football news) Inter Milan made a statement by winning 4-0 against Cagliari to go on top of the Serie A standings. The champions dominated the match to earn their fifth win in a row in Serie A, with Inter striker Martinez getting the scoring up and running with a bullet header in the 29th minute. Martinez could have doubled Inter’s advantage before halftime, but saw his penalty saved, Alexis Sanchez on a rare start, volleyed home at the 55th minute mark as Cagliari were dead and buried after the third goal and Hakan Calhanoglu soon added a third before Martinez completed the scoring in the 68th minute with a delicate finish after bringing Nicolo Barella's inch-perfect long pass under control. Inter with this result have reached the summit of the table as they have a one point advantage over their city rivals AC Milan and three points above Atalanta in third.

AC Milan dropped points against Udinese in a 1-1 draw as Zlatan’s late goal rescued a point for the Rossenari’s. In the first half, Udinese slowly grew into the match with Brazilian striker Beto breaking the deadlock in the 17th minute after his first shot was initially saved, then the ball rebounded into this path as he hammered it home. Ibrahimovic's goal, his sixth in the Serie A campaign as it was the only shot on target in the match and was clinical in its execution to earn a below-par Milan a point. The Swede also became the third player to score 300 goals in the top-five European leagues since the turn of the century, after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. With this result AC Milan dropped to second, just a point behind as Inter became the new leaders.

Milan coach Stefano Pioli said "Tonight we struggled to play our game, We weren't fluid and precise enough to undo Udinese. We are conceding goals after mistakes. These are things that you pay for and make you lose your flow. In the last few games we have lost consistency in the defensive phase with little effect in the pressure phase. We have to fix some things at both ends of the pitch."

Napoli suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Empoli as they dropped down to fourth in the table. Opportunities came and went for Napoli after the break as Wolves loanee Patrick Cutrone's header which he knew little about, crept home to settle the contest in the 70th minute as Napoli had 30 shots at goal but without injured striker Victor Osimhen and other key players missing they could not muster an equaliser at all. Having gone unbeaten in their first 12 league matches this season and remaining on top of the Serie A table for the majority of the season as after this loss they slipped down to fourth-place and finished the weekend four points behind Inter Milan,three behind AC Milan and one behind Atalanta. Empoli continue to be Serie A's surprise package this season as they won their third match in their last four league games helping them climb to seventh.

Juventus again dropped crucial points in a disappointing 1-1 draw against Venezia. In the first half Juve took a deserved lead in the 32nd minute when Luca Pellegrini crossed in from the left side for Morata who flicked it in at the near post as it was the young left back’s first assist for Juventus. In the second half Juventus sat back too much as Venezia leveled up in the 55th as the Bianconeri failed to clear danger on the edge of the area and the ball came through to Aramu, who made no mistake and fired into the bottom left corner. With this result Juventus dropped down to 6th in the table with 28 points as Fiorentina went 2 points clear off them in 5th.

We played well in the first half, applying ourselves tactically, creating several chances and also finding the goal. At the beginning of the second half, however, we had a blackout. I'm disappointed. We cannot return to Turin satisfied this evening because we have lost two more points on the road.”Allegri said

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