Inter put one hand on the Serie A title on Sunday after coming back from two goals down to win 4-3 in a thrilling match at As and move nine points clear of Napoli, who could only draw 1-1 at Parma.
Two goals down in the dying moments of the first half due to goals from Álex Valle and Nico Paz, Inter looked set to give champions Napoli hope that their Scudetto defence might still be alive.
But Marcus Thuram brilliantly poked home Nicolò Barella’s cross in stoppage time at the end of the first half before the France forward pounced on a mix-up between the Como goalkeeper Jean Butez and the defender Marc-Oliver Kempf to loop home the leveller moments after the break.
Denzel Dumfries then scored from Hakan Calhanoglu’s perfectly delivered free-kick in the 58th minute and then completed the turnaround at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia by coolly guiding home Manuel Akanji’s knock-down 14 minutes later.
Como battled to the end with Lucas Da Cunha’s late penalty, for a soft foul on Paz by Ange-Yoan Bonny, nearly being followed up by a last-gasp leveller when Alberto Moreno smashed the crossbar form close range.
With six matches remaining in the season Inter now have a near-unassailable lead at the top of the table, while Como’s first defeat in two months left them outside the Champions League positions.
Juventus have taken Como’s place in the top four of Italy’s top flight, a disappointment after a superb first half in which Paz was the star of the show with a brilliant 11th goal of the season and the saved shot which led to Valle’s opener.
Cesc Fàbregas’ Como have never played European football and were in Italy’s third tier when acquired by the tobacco giant Djarum seven years ago.
Napoli’s Serie A title defence suffered a blow with a 1-1 draw at Parma. Last weekend’s win over Milan had reopened the prospect of retaining the title but a draw at the Stadio Ennio Tardini has made that feat less likely with six matches remaining in their season.
Antonio Conte’s team were on the back foot within 36 seconds. That was how long it took for Gabriel Strefezza to race on to Nesta Elphege’s knock-on and beautifully curl home Parma’s opener. Scott McTominay’s drilled finish on the hour mark gave Napoli a draw, but they struggled to break down the hosts who were content to sit deep and soak up the pressure and deny the away team a sixth straight league win.
Parma are level on 36 points with Genoawho also took a step towards safety with a tumultuous 2-1 win over Sassuolo in the day’s early fixture. Both teams were down to 10 men for the second half after a tunnel bust-up.
Caleb Ekuban tapped home Genoa’s winner with six minutes remaining in front of a typically passionate crowd at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris who watched their team move nine points clear away from the relegation zone in 13th.
Genoa’s Icelandic midfielder Mikael Ellertsson and Sassuolo’s Domenico Berardi were sent off after a row blew up just after the half-time whistle, with the hosts leading through Ruslan Malinovskyi.
In Germany, Union Berlin have named Marie-Louise Eta as manager, making her the first female head coach in Bundesliga history, after Steffen Baumgart was sacked on Sunday.
Eta becomes the first female top-flight coach of a men’s team in a major European league. The 34-year-old, who was the first female assistant coach in the Bundesliga, will take over for the remainder of the season. “I am delighted the club has entrusted me with this challenging task,” Eta said in a statement.
Baumgart was sacked early on Sunday morning after the club’s form flatlined in the second-half of the season, with Saturday’s 3-1 defeat by last-placed Heidenheim the final straw. Union have won just two games since Christmas and sit seven points above the relegation playoff spot.
“We’ve had an absolutely disappointing second half of the season,” their sporting director, Horst Held, said in a statement. “Our situation remains precarious and we desperately need points to stay in the league. The performances in recent weeks don’t give us the confidence we could turn things around with the current setup.”
As a player with Turbine Potsdam, Eta won the Champions League in 2010 along with three Bundesliga titles. She has already committed to take over Union Berlin’s women’s Bundesliga team from summer.
Women have managed men’s football teams in the lower divisions but never in the top flight. The German third tier club Ingolstadt are coached by Sabrina Wittmann, while the French second-tier club Clermont were managed by Corinne Diacre for three seasons until 2017.
