Inter rally late to down Fiorentina and regain Serie A lead

Inter Milan struck twice in stoppage time to complete a remarkable 2-1 comeback win over Fiorentina at San Siro on Sunday and return to the summit of Serie A.

Alex Jimenez’s rocket strike had the struggling visitors heading for a shock win, but Marcus Thuram levelled in the 91st minute before winning a penalty that Piotr Zielinski converted in the 98th minute.

The result meant the Nerazzurri returned to first place, level with surprise fellow pace-setters Lazio on 22 points, while the Florence club’s winless run stretched to four games to keep them in 18th spot.

It was Inter’s fifth comeback win of the season, while they conceded for the 10th time, but head coach Cristian Chivu was unconcerned by his side’s defensive issues.  

“That’s football: sometimes you concede,” Chivu told DAZN. “The important thing is not to let your heads drop and to maintain the same mentality. Ever since I arrived here, I’ve always said that games last 90 minutes.”

“I don’t want to see people feel sorry for themselves,” Chivu added. “I want to see players respond to setbacks.”

Chivu’s side had the better of the first half but could not find a way past David de Gea, who made a fingertip stop on a Pio Esposito header before showing quick reactions to parry Thuram’s angled drive.

De Gea was alert again to parry a fierce Thuram strike over the bar early in the second half, but it was the visitors who struck first against the run of play after 65 minutes.

Former AC Milan player Jimenez took debutant Inter goalkeeper Ivan Provedel by surprise with an audacious angled strike from distance that flew into the top corner.

Inter piled forward in search of an equaliser, with Carlos Augusto’s glancing header coming off the top of the bar and De Gea denying substitute Petar Sucic, but they could not find a way through until the game was into added time.

Thuram guided a shot into the bottom corner to level the scores before winning a penalty when he was dragged down by Victor Valdepenas in the box, which Zielinski converted to complete a pulsating victory.

There was an eight-goal thriller in Bergamo as Atalanta and Frosinone played out a 4-4 draw in which both sides came from behind twice, extending La Dea’s winless run to three games in all competitions and keeping the visitors in sixth place.

Genoa claimed a 1-0 win at home to Venezia thanks to a goal from Mikael Ellertsson to climb up to 16th place as Davide Nicola’s side stayed bottom.

Later on Sunday, Juventus travel to Lecce before AC Milan go to Udinese.

str/mw