Inter Milan produced a stunning comeback to beat Udinese 5-3 on Monday and maintain their perfect start to the Serie A season alongside Roma.
Udinese raced into a two-goal lead inside the opening 16 minutes, but the defending champions responded with five goals to complete a dramatic turnaround.
James Abankwah opened the scoring after just nine minutes, heading home unmarked before Jurgen Ekkelenkamp doubled Udinese’s advantage seven minutes later with a close-range finish.
Inter quickly found their response through Carlos Augusto, whose long-range strike nestled into the bottom corner.
Nicolo Barella then levelled the contest 10 minutes before halftime, setting the stage for Inter to complete the comeback after the break.
Marcus Thuram put Inter ahead in the 59th minute, finishing from inside the box after Andy Diouf’s cutback from the byline.
Francesco Esposito added a fourth before Ange-Yoan Bonny made it 5-2 with 11 minutes remaining.
Udinese grabbed a late consolation through Idrissa Gueye in stoppage time, but Inter held on for all three points.
The victory leaves Inter with 12 points from four matches, level with Roma at the top of the table ahead of their highly anticipated meeting at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.
Roma Maintain Perfect Start
Roma also made it four wins from four with a 2-0 victory away to Torino.
Donyell Malen opened the scoring five minutes before halftime after capitalising on a misplaced pass from Torino goalkeeper Lucas Perri, following Paulo Dybala’s interception.
Niccolo Pisilli sealed the victory in stoppage time, firing home from an angle after Gianluca Mancini kept the ball in play near the byline.
Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini praised the growing partnership between Malen and Dybala.
“Clearly, these are two players who are very talented individually, but they also complete each other as a pair. They combine beautifully to create goals in many games,” Gasperini told DAZN Italia.
Roma will now turn their attention to Saturday’s showdown with Inter.
“It is an opportunity for us to measure up against the best and show we can do better than in recent performances,” Gasperini said.
Como Continue Strong Start
Como sit third with 10 points after beating Parma 2-1.
Jacobo Ramon and Kaiki Bruno scored for Cesc Fabregas’ side, who followed up their Champions League debut victory over RB Leipzig with another important win.
“This is an important victory for me as a coach, because I am starting to realise what team we could become,” Fabregas said.
