‘Rough diamond’ Lukaku gets Inter back on course
Antonio Conte hailed Romelu Lukaku’s progress since joining Inter Milan last season as the Belgian scored his seventh goal this campaign in a 2-0 Serie A win over Genoa.
Second-half strikes from Belgium striker Lukaku and Danilo D’Ambrosio put Conte’s Inter third, ahead of Atalanta who fell 3-1 to Sampdoria.
“Romelu is now a different player, compared to a year ago, he’s improved in every respect,” said Conte after Inter bounced back after a 2-1 derby defeat to AC Milan and a 2-2 Champions League stalemate with Borussia Moenchengladbach.
“He’s improving on a daily basis and adding quality to his game.”
After being on the back foot in the first half, Conte brought reinforcements off the bench, with Nicolo Barella coming on for Christian Eriksen and Achraf Hakimi replacing Ivan Perisic, just hours after the Moroccan defender tested negative for coronavirus.
Barella set up former Manchester United forward Lukaku to open the scoring with his fifth league goal this season in the 64th minutes, with his other two coming against Moenchengladbach.
D’Ambrosio nodded in the second with 10 minutes to go.
Inter move up to third, two points behind leaders AC Milan, who host Roma today, and one point ahead of Atalanta, fourth after a second straight defeat.
Atalanta are level on points with Claudio Ranieri’s Sampdoria who followed up wins over Fiorentina and Lazio with an impressive victory in Bergamo.
Fabio Quagliarella opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour with his fourth goal in as many games, but the veteran striker was denied a second from the penalty spot.
Morten Thorsby added a second before the hour mark, with Jakub Jankto sealing the points in injury time.
Colombian striker Duvan Zapata had halved the deficit for Atalanta with 10 minutes to go from the penalty spot. AFP
Genoa 0 Inter Milan 2 (Lukaku 64, D’Ambrosio 80); Atalanta 1 (Zapata 80-pen) Sampdoria 3 (Quagliarella 13, Thorsby 59, Jankto 90+2); Lazio 2 (Alberto 54, Immobile 76) Bologna 1 (De Silvestri 90+1)