Inter Milan return to Serie A summit with hard-fought win at Fiorentina

Inter Milan’s fine season continued as they moved back to the Serie A summit after in-form Lautaro Martinez hit the only goal of the game to down Fiorentina.

It was a 22nd goal of the campaign for Martinez, who raced to the near-post to head home Kristjan Aslani’s 14th-minute corner.

Nico Gonzalez saw a second-half penalty saved as Inter secured the three points with a 1-0 win that extends their unbeaten run to 15 games.

Simone Inzaghi’s side have now 17 of their 21 Serie A games this season – equalling their previous record at this stage, set in 2006/07 under Roberto Mancini as they went on to win the league by 22 points.

Carlos Augusto thought he had given the visitors the lead with a close-range finish but was denied by brilliant defending by Davide Faraoni.

But Martinez would turn home the resulting corner, glancing a near-post header in after he had easily slipped the attention of his marker.

The Argentina World Cup winner had proved to be the match-winner last time out – his injury-time effort sealing a 1-0 win over Napoli in the Italian Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia.

Marcus Thuram could not sort his feet out when played through on goal as Inter looked to build on their lead before Yann Sommer made a fine stop to prevent Giacomo Bonaventura levelling for the home side.

Penalty saved: Yann’s the man! #FiorentinaInter 0-1 (76’)#ForzaInter pic.twitter.com/IKmWjnvxQn

— Inter (@Inter_en) January 28, 2024

Inter thought they had doubled their but had a goal ruled out for offside as Marko Arnautovic turned home from a Henrikh Mkhitaryan pass, only for the flag to go up against the Armenia international.

Fiorentina were handed a lifeline when they were awarded a controversial penalty following a lengthy VAR check for a foul against Sommer.

The Switzerland goalkeeper had punched away a cross but caught M’Bala Nzola in the face with his fist and the video assistant referee flagged the incident to the onfield official.

A spot-kick was duly awarded but Sommer would make amends as Gonzalez – on as a substitute as he returned from injury – hit a tame spot-kick that was easily saved.

It proved to be the best chance the hosts would have in attempting to rescue a result, while Inter moved back above Juventus to the summit.

Juve visit the San Siro next Sunday with just one point separating the two sides at the top of Serie A – the pair having drawn 1-1 in Turin earlier this season.