Inter bounce back against blundering Fiorentina
Reuters - Saturday 10 December 2011, 22:09
Inter Milan, helped by the
visitors' blundering defence, beat Fiorentina 2-0 in Serie A on
Saturday to bounce back after suffering two home defeats in the
previous week.
Giampaolo Pazzini and Yuto Nagatomo scored either side of
half-time for Claudio Ranieri's injury-plagued team and move them
away from the danger zone.
Miroslav Klose scored twice, including the winning goal
three minutes from time, to give Lazio a 3-2 win at Lecce where
coach Serse Cosmi was making his debut with the hosts.
Genoa won 2-0 at Siena and Romania forward Adrian Mutu gave
Cesena a 1-0 win at Palermo, ending the Sicilians' 100 percent
home record.
Inter were missing captain Javier Zanetti, suspended
following the first red card of his Serie A career in last
week's home defeat by Udinese, while Wesley Sneijder, Diego
Forlan, Dejan Stankovic and Cristian Chivu were among those on
the injury list.
NO CELEBRATION
Having also lost 2-1 at home to CSKA Moscow in the Champions
League on Tuesday, the pressure was back on Inter who are
struggling to recover from a dreadful start to the season under
Gian Piero Gasperini's short-lived leadership.
They were helped at the San Siro by an insipid performance
from the visitors, who were missing injured playmaker Stevan
Jovetic.
Inter broke through four minutes before the break when
Fiorentina were caught out by Coutinho's lobbed pass and Pazzini
pounced to cleverly flick the ball past Boruc.
The former Fiorentina player chose not to celebrate the goal
against the club where he spent four seasons.
Four minutes after the re-start, there was confusion in the
Fiorentina defence as three players tried to clear Pazzini's
ball into the area.
Manuel Pasqual got there first but only succeeded in
thumping his attempted clearance straight at Nagatomo and the
ball rebounded off the Japan player into the net.
Inter's win left them ninth with 17 points, one more than
Fiorentina who dropped to 14th.
Bottom-of-the-table Lecce, playing their first game under
Cosmi after Eusebio Di Francesco was fired last week, went ahead
against Lazio when David Di Michele won and converted a 12th-minute penalty.
Having been outplayed early on, Lazio, 3-0 winners over
Novara on Monday, levelled with their first real attack when
Klose pounced to score from close range in the 28th minute.
Albania midfielder Lorik Cana put Lazio in front in the 48th
minute, almost immediately after coming on as a half-time
substitute, before Stefano Ferrario headed in Luis Muriel's
lobbed cross to level just before the hour.
In the 87th minute, Klose got in front of his markers to
head in Djibril Cisse's perfectly flighted cross to score his
eighth goal of the season.