.png)
4 hours ago
2
Internazionale missed their chance to go top of Serie A , the defending champions suffering a 3-0 defeat at Fiorentina as Moise Kean scored twice for the hosts. The defeat left Inter in second place on 51 points, three behind the leaders, Napoli, and Fiorentina moved up to fourth on 42 points, above Lazio on goal difference.
The original match on 1 December was suspended when Fiorentina’s Edoardo Bove collapsed on the pitch and was taken to hospital, and the game restarted at 0-0 in the 17th minute with a Fiorentina throw-in.
Fiorentina were under the cosh early on, with David de Gea parrying a shot from Lautaro Martínez and Carlos Augusto having a goal chalked off for offside, but the two best chances of the opening half fell to the hosts – a Kean header and a shot dragged wide.
Inter struggled to get forward and create any real openings early in the second half, and Fiorentina took a deserved lead from a corner in the 59th minute. Luca Ranieri arrived from outside the area, getting to the ball ahead of Davide Frattesi, and hit his shot first time low into the corner.
There was little in the way of response from Inter, and Fiorentina doubled their lead nine minutes later. Dodô crossed from the right and Kean pulled away from his marker before powering a header into the bottom corner, this time leaving Sommer with no chance.
With time running out, and an Inter comeback looking unlikely, Fiorentina wrapped up the win in the 89th minute, the goal coming from a Federico Dimarco howler. The defender hit a back-pass without looking and Kean was there to capitalise, and with the keeper in no man’s land, the striker finished with aplomb to net his 15th league goal of the season and end Inter’s 17-game unbeaten run in the league.
Inter will have the chance for revenge when the sides meet again on Monday at San Siro. “Congratulations to Fiorentina. It’s a deserved defeat, we didn’t put anything on the field between running, aggression and determination,” said the Inter manager, Simone Inzaghi.
“Now is not the time to make dramas but it is a defeat that hurts for how it came and how it has matured,” Inzaghi told Dazn. “Now we will have three and a half days before meeting Fiorentina again. Today we didn’t put on the field what we always put in … only work can get us out of this situation.”
Ferran Torres scored a hat-trick in the first 30 minutes to lead an imperious Barcelona to a 5-0 rout of Valencia in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals. Playing in his home town against his childhood club, Torres scored from a quick counterattack in the second minute and extended the lead in the 17th minute when he fired home a rebound from a Lamine Yamal strike that ricocheted off the post.
Fermín López scored the third in another counter five minutes later and Torres gave Barça a four-goal lead on the half-hour mark with a strike from the edge of the box. The visitors took their foot off the gas after the break but Yamal still added a fifth goal in the 52nd minute as Barça cruised into the semi-finals.
“I really wish Valencia the best of luck because outside the pitch I’m just another fan,” Torres told TVE after deciding not to celebrate any of his goals out of respect for his formative club. “It’s hard to see the club of your childhood, the club of your life suffer like this ... seeing how they are going through such a hard time.”
after newsletter promotion
In Thursday’s other quarter-final, Real Sociedad saw off Osasuna with a 2-0 victory. Ander Barrenetxea started and finished a move that led to the opener in the 21st minute. The 23-year-old dinked the ball over Alejandro Catena’s head to free Mikel Oyarzabal, who passed back inside to his waiting teammate. Barrenetxea then swept in a left-footed effort despite the attentions of two defenders.
Ten minutes later, Sociedad’s second followed a fluffed attempt to play out from the back. Osasuna’s goalkeeper Sergio Herrera tried to find Iker Muñoz, but Palo Marín was pressing hard and his challenge left Oyarzabal in space on the left, the goalkeeper rushing back, and a straightforward pass into the net from Brais Méndez.
Four minutes later, Catena’s night was curtailed after his wild, high challenge on Méndez, which caught him just under the back of his neck. The video assistant referee intervened after a yellow card was issued, and the referee upgraded it to a dismissable offence on review. Sociedad join Barça, Real Madrid and Atlético in a heavyweight final four, with the semi-final draw to be made on 12 February.
