Inter Milan 4-0 Salernitana: League leaders cruise to comfortable victory over bottom-placed visitors
Leaders Inter Milan lived up to expectations with a 4-0 home win over bottom-placed Salernitana on Friday, strengthening their grip on Serie A.
Marcus Thuram, Lautaro Martinez, Denzel Dumfries, and Marko Arnautovic scored to lift Simone Inzaghi's side to 63 points, ten ahead of second-placed Juventus, who were shocked by Udinese on Monday.
"The lads did very well. It was a solid match, approached in the best possible way. Salernitana had created problems for many teams," coach Inzaghi told reporters.
"We still have a long way to go. We must stay focused even when we sleep. We are looking only at the next game, our goal is to reach the end of all competitions."
The hosts took the lead in the 17th minute on Thuram's powerful strike from the center of the box off Carlos Augusto's cross.
Martinez, Serie A's top scorer, doubled the lead two minutes later with his 20th league goal of the season, curling a superb long-range shot off Augusto's second assist of the night.
The Argentina international joined Giuseppe Meazza and Stefano Nyers as the only players to have scored at least 20 goals in three consecutive Italian league seasons.
"We approach every game the same way, sometimes it works from the start and sometimes it gets tougher," Martinez told Sky Sport Italia. "We always try to press high, recover the ball quickly and score lots of goals."
"We always have our destiny in our hands, we worked so hard on gaining maturity, and now we step onto the field aware of our own strength, eager to show it in every game."
Dumfries increased their lead to 3-0 in the 40th minute, pouncing on a rebound from goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, before substitute Arnautovic's tap-in sealed the victory in the final seconds.
Inter will host Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
"As we said after (finishing runner-up at the 2023) Champions League final, this is a very strong team and we work to hold Inter's flag high." added Martinez.
SportsLigue