Inter march on as Sampdoria stumble

Inter Milan continued their inexorable march towards a fifth straight Italian Serie A title with a 2-0 victory away to lowly Livorno on Sunday.

There may only be 11 games gone in the championship but Inter have already opened up a seven-point lead over second-placed Juventus after the Turin giants were beaten 3-2 at home to Napoli on Saturday.

Sampdoria also failed to keep pace with Inter as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to newly-promoted Bari on Sunday, leaving them third on goal difference behind Juve.

Inter were far from their sparkling best against a team who had won their previous two matches under new boss Serse Cosmi, but they always looked capable of doing enough to win.

Livorno, who lost on-loan Inter centre-back Nelson Rivas to injury in the warm-up, had the best chance of the opening period as Antonio Candreva brought a fine save out of Julio Cesar from a free-kick.

The opener came just four minutes into the second half as Diego Milito, restored to the starting line-up after making a substitute appearance in midweek on his return from injury, twisted and turned on the edge of the box before shooting low through a crowd of legs into the bottom corner.

Brazilian full-back Maicon then set the seal on the victory 10 minutes from time as he burst forward from his half, played a one-two with Patrick Vieira and reached the edge of the box unchallenged before slotting home left-footed into the bottom corner.

This relatively comfortable stroll in the park was ideal preparation for Inter ahead of their midweek trip to Ukraine to face Dynamo Kiev in a crucial Champions League match.

Coach Jose Mourinho gave rare starts to young Slovenian midfielder Rene Krhin and Brazilian misfit Mancini whilst leaving the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Walter Samuel and Esteban Cambiasso on the bench, although all three came on as substitutes.

But Mourinho was counting the cost of more injuries to his team after the game as Muntari Sulley limped off during the first half.

“Unfortunately we’re a team that always has injuries, I can never play the team I want,” said Mourinho who was already without Thiago Motta, Mario Balotelli, Cristian Chivu and Wesley Sneijder.

“Muntari can’t walk and I don’t think 48 hours will be enough (to recover), I think it will be difficult as well for Thiago Motta to be ready for Wednesday.”

In Genoa Sampdoria were in uninspired form as they failed to break down a stubborn Bari.

Sampdoria playmaker Antonio Cassano, playing against the club where he began his career, had a goal ruled out for offside three minutes from time in an otherwise anonymous performance.

It could have been worse for Sampdoria, though, as Bari’s Paulo Barreto put an injury-time penalty wide while Leonardo Bonucci then had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside.

AS Roma ended a three-game losing streak as they came from behind to beat Bologna 2-1 in the capital.

Brazilian Adailton gave Bologna the lead on 32 minutes but Mirko Vucinic benefited from a kind ricochet to equalise three minutes later before Simone Perrotta scored the winner in the 52nd minute.

Marco Marchionni scored a brace as Fiorentina got back to winning ways after two straight defeats with a 3-1 success at home to Catania in a match that ended 10-men apiece.

Alberto Gilardino scored the third goal for ‘La Viola’ while Giuseppe Mascara netted for Catania.