Serie A: Inter Milan edges Venezia to narrow gap on Napoli

Inter Milan climbed to second place in Serie A on Sunday, moving within one point of league leaders Napoli, after a hard-fought 1-0 win over struggling Venezia. 

The victory marked a crucial rebound for the defending champions following their recent disappointment in the Italian Super Cup final.

Matteo Darmian emerged as the hero for Inter, scoring the game’s only goal in the 16th minute.

The Italy defender capitalized on a rebound after Lautaro Martinez’s effort was saved by Filip Stankovic, Venezia’s goalkeeper and an Inter loanee.

“We work on getting up the pitch and it doesn’t matter who gets there. I found myself in front of goal and thankfully, I managed to score and help the team win,” said Darmian.

Napoli can extend their lead at the top of the division to four points with a home win over Verona, although Antonio Conte will be without Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who has asked to be sold, with an 80-million-euro ($82 million) transfer to Paris Saint-Germain reportedly in the works.

However Inter will have two games in hand, the first against Bologna on Wednesday and the other their December fixture at Fiorentina which was stopped, following Edoardo Bove’s collapse on the pitch, and has yet to be rescheduled.

Inter have had problems closing out matches this season and Sunday’s narrow win, their sixth on the bounce in Serie A, came after Simone Inzaghi’s side threw away a two-goal lead in the Italian Super Cup final against AC Milan.

The away side dominated and should have won by more despite having Italy defender Francesco Acerbi and key midfielders Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan out injured, with Marcus Thuram, Benjamin Pavard and Federico Dimarco starting on the bench.

But Stankovic, the son of Inter legend Dejan, was excellent between the sticks and his brilliant save from Davide Frattesi in the 67th minute almost paid off moments later when the post denied USA midfielder Gianluca Busio and allowed Inter to escape with all three points.

“It wasn’t easy after losing the final the way we did, but the boys were brilliant because we came here tired with a host of players out but we played really well,” said Inzaghi.

•⁠ ⁠Vieira’s Genoa on the up –

Genoa continued their revival under Patrick Vieira with their first home win of the season, 1-0 over relegation rivals Parma, in front of new majority shareholder Dan Sucu.

Morten Frendrup’s wildly deflected strike in the 65th minute gave Genoa their third win since France and Arsenal icon Vieira replaced Alberto Gilardino in November.

Genoa are up to 11th, level on 23 points with Roma who are at Bologna later on Sunday, and five points above the relegation zone after their first victory at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris since the final day of last season.

“We played well from the first minute to the last, everyone was waiting for this win for 233 days and we did it with a great performance,” said Vieira.

It was a propitious first appearance in front of home fans for Sucu who took over Genoa last month after he subscribed to a 45-million-euro capital increase which gave him 77 percent of the club.

That operation brought to an end the ownership of controversial investment company 777 Partners, who acquired 99.9 percent of Genoa in September 2021 but were issued with a winding up order by the United Kingdom’s High Court last year.

Sucu’s ownership is contested by another investment firm and 777 creditor, Advantage Capital (A-Cap), who say they were Genoa’s rightful owners after taking control of 777’s football assets.

A-Cap called the arrival of Sucu, who also owns Rapid Bucharest, a “non-approved clandestine operation” before Genoa said the takeover was final and that any news to the contrary was false.

Parma are a point and place above the bottom three and face three key clashes with fellow strugglers Venezia, Lecce and Cagliari in the next few weeks.