Inter fire title warning shot at Fiorentina to reclaim top spot
Inter Milan underlined their desire to retain the Serie A title on Tuesday after coming back from a goal down to win 3-1 at Fiorentina and move top of the pile.
Simone Inzaghi's side came away from an intense match against a revitalised Viola in Florence with all three points thanks to two quickfire strikes early in second half from Matteo Darmian, Edin Dzeko and Ivan Perisic's tap-in late on.
That completed a turnaround after the break as Inter were deservedly losing at half-time through Riccardo Sottil's opener for Fiorentina, who had come into the game in form but fell to a painful second defeat of the season.
Champions Inter are unbeaten in their first five games and sit first with 13 points, one ahead of Napoli who are at Sampdoria on Thursday looking to maintain their 100 percent start to the campaign.
"This win today was one of a really good team, because we're a really good team. We definitely struggled in the first half and thank goodness it was only 1-0 at half time," said Dzeko to DAZN after scoring his fourth goal for Inter since moving from Roma in the summer.
"In the second half we were more solid and we scored those two goals which changed the match."
A further two points back are local rivals AC Milan and Atalanta, who won a frenetic match with Sassuolo 2-1 thanks to goals in the first half from Robin Gosens and Davide Zappacosta and take on Inter at the San Siro on Saturday.
Vincenzo Italiano's Fiorentina, who finished the game with 10 men after Nicolas Gonzalez was sent off with 11 minutes remaining following two yellow cards in quick succession for dissent, sit sixth on nine points alongside Roma.
"I think we need to look at this as a glass half full, because for 60 minutes we were as good as the champions of Italy and we had enough chances to go two ahead," said Italiano to DAZN.
"But when you don't take advantage they have too much strength, quality and solidity to not come back at you."