Inter beat Fiorentina to secure first San Siro win

MILAN (AFP) –

Inter Milan‘s forward Antonio Cassano celebrates after scoring during the Italian Serie A football match between Inter Milan and Fiorentina at the San Siro stadium in Milan. Inter won 2-1.

Inter Milan finally put their San Siro curse to bed Sunday by defeating Fiorentina 2-1 in a pulsating end-to-end match.

City rivals Inter and AC Milan had both failed to win at their shared ground in their first three league games, prompting Italian media to suggest both were subject to a San Siro curse.

Milan got that monkey off their back with a 2-0 win over Cagliari in midweek and on Sunday Inter put in a convincing performance against an impressive Fiorentina side to secure a fourth win in six games and move up to third.

Juventus, who are unbeaten in their last 45 games, sit top on 16 points with Napoli second on goal difference and Inter and Lazio in third and fourth respectively on 12 points.

Diego Milito opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 17th minute, beating Emiliano Viviano in the Fiorentina goal following a handball in the area after Brazilian midfielder Coutinho’s maurauding run down the left.

Antonio Cassano was then left unmarked on the left side of the area and coolly latched on to a long pass following Esteban Cambiasso’s dummy on the edge of the area to punish Fiorentina’s slack marking in the 34th minute.

Fiorentina fought back, however, and when Chilean David Pizarro was allowed time to waltz across the edge of the area his cross was met with a powerful Romulo header which reduced the arrears.

A minute before half-time Milito missed a golden chance to extend Inter’s lead when he shot from the edge of the area only to see the ball go wide.

Fiorentina were reduced to 10 men on the hour mark when Gonzalez Rodriguez, who had been booked earlier, was sent off for a needless foul on Japanese defender Yuto Nagatomo.

Both sides produced further chances to score, with Viviano pulling off a great save from Milito’s close-range snap shot following a corner and then second-half substitute Luca Toni seeing his powerful header go wide.