Lautaro Martínez marked his return with a double as Inter Milan went nine points clear at the top of the Serie A table with a 5-2 demolition of Roma.
Martínez took his tally for the season to 23 with goals in either half, both of them set up by Marcus Thuram, with Hakan Çalhanoglu’s piledriver and Nicolò Barella’s strike doing the damage after Gianluca Mancini had levelled for the visitors, for whom Lorenzo Pellegrini struck late on at San Siro.
AC Milan will kick off at Napoli on Monday evening knowing anything less than a win will all but hand the title to their derby rivals, who had won just two of their previous eight league games to give the chasers hope, with just seven fixtures remaining.
Martínez, back in action after injury for the first time since Feb. 18, needed less than two minutes to claim his 22nd goal of the campaign, firing home from Thuram’s assist to get the hosts off to the perfect start.
Roma keeper Mile Svilar had to save from Çalhanoglu, Alessandro Bastoni and Martínez, as Inter threatened to run away with it, but opposite number Yann Sommer denied Donyell Malen a 24th-minute equaliser.
Piotr Zielinski curled a 33rd-minute shot just wide as Svilar’s goal came under threat once again, but the visitors were back in it five minutes before the break when Matìas Soulè slid the ball into Devyne Rensch’s run and his clipped cross was headed home by Mancini.
However, Cristian Chivu’s men went in at half time with a 2-1 lead after Çalhanoglu blasted a spectacular swerving 35-yard drive past the Roma keeper in stoppage time.
Inter returned buoyed by the way in which they had ended the first half and determined to pick up where they had left off, and they did just that when Thuram and Martínez linked up once again for the Argentina international to help himself to a second goal with a neat finish from an inch-perfect 52nd-minute pass.
Thuram did it all himself three minutes later when he headed home his side’s fourth from Çalhanoglu’s corner, and Roma’s evening took a further turn for the worse with 63 minutes gone, when Barella barged his way into the penalty area and smashed a fifth past Svilar.
Pellegrini reduced the deficit with 20 minutes remaining, firing a left-footed shot past Sommer after Malen had surged into the box and Gian Piero Gasperini’s men passed up two opportunities to make life more difficult for the home side.
Denzel Dumfries chipped just wide with 13 minutes remaining with the leaders looking to finish in style, but their work was done.
