Internazionale got through the match against Lazio without any damage. The team of coach Simone Inzaghi left Stadio Olimpico with a 0-2 win thanks to goals from Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram. Lazio defender Adam Marusic played a negative role in both goals. The Montenegrin made a serious mistake in particular with the first goal, where he offered Martínez a one-on-one opportunity. Leader Inter is now four points ahead of Juventus; Lazio is eleventh.

At Lazio, striker Ciro Immobile was flanked by Mattia Zaccagni and Felipe Anderson. Denzel Dumfries and Stefan de Vrij are still missing from Inter's side. Up front, Martínez was supported by Thuram, with the usual five-man midfield behind them.

Little happened in the opening phase in Stadio Olimpico. The pace was slow and sparse attacks yielded little or nothing. The chances started to come around the half hour mark. Immobile had a reasonable header opportunity, which he did nothing with. His attempt flew wide. At the other end of the court, Thuram had an opportunity from a rebound. He also shot wide.

A huge blunder by Marusic led to the opening goal for Inter just before half-time. The defender wanted to play back to Ivan Provedel, but overlooked Martínez. The Argentinian rounded Provedel and shot the ball against the ropes just in time, before Mario Gila could intervene: 0-1. With his goal, Martínez reached 29 goals in a calendar year. No other Inter striker has done that better since 2000. Diego Milito and Christian Vieri once made 28 in a year.

Shortly after halftime, Nicolò Rovella came close to the equalizer. He stole the ball from Hakan Calhanoglu and had a free shooting opportunity on the right side of the sixteen, but saw Yann Sommer make an excellent save. Maurizio Sarri tried to force something by bringing on Luis Alberto.

Shortly after the Brazilian's entrance, however, the score was 0-2. Nicolò Barella put in a good effort and seemed to lose the ball for a moment, but Marusic again defended poorly. Barella regained possession and passed to Thuram, who saw space in the far corner. The Frenchman scored convincingly: 0-2.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan had the chance to make it 0-3 after losing the ball again, this time at Rovella. He was unable to pass Provedel from a fairly difficult angle. Nevertheless, it was quite clear that the offensively powerless Lazio would not get back into the match. The Romans created little and were no match for Inter, who played it maturely. Manuel Lazzari was sent off for commenting on the lead after a free kick that was not given.

No. Team M W G V +/- Pnt
1 Internazionale 15 12 2 1 30 38
2 Juventus 16 11 4 1 14 37
3 AC Milan 16 10 2 4 11 32
4 Bologna 16 7 7 2 8 28
5 Napoli 16 8 3 5 9 27
6 Fiorentina 16 8 3 5 7 27
7 AS Roma 16 7 4 5 9 25
8 Atalanta 15 7 2 6 6 23
9 Torino 16 6 5 5 -2 23
10 Lazio 15 6 3 6 0 21
11 Monza 16 5 6 5 -1 21
12 Lecce 16 4 8 4 -2 20
13 Frosinone 16 5 4 7 -5 19
14 Genoa 16 4 4 8 -5 16
15 Sassuolo 16 4 4 8 -6 16
16 Cagliari 16 3 4 9 -13 13
17 Udinese 16 1 10 5 -13 13
18 Empoli 16 3 3 10 -18 12
19 Hellas Verona 16 2 5 9 -10 11
20 Salernitana 15 1 5 9 -19 8

Date:Sunday, December 17, 2023, 8:45 PM

Stadium:Stadio Olimpico (Roma)

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