Juventus laugh last against Inter in fiery Derby d’Italia

Juventus secured a 1-0 victory against Inter Milan in the Derby d’Italia, on a night Inter had more open chances.

Francisco Conceicao’s goal from a Randal Kolo Muani assist secured maximum points for Juventus ), stopping Inter from becoming the new leaders of the Serie A and putting the Old Lady in joint fourth place.

Many expected another thriller after their last meet in October to see the Bianconeri fight back from 4-2 down to draw a 4-4 at San Siro.

The visitors made a strong start with a double chance when Michele Di Gregorio parried the Mehdi Taremi overhead kick from Nicola Batrela’s miskick. Dumfries nodded a Lautaro Martinez cross over on the rebound.

It was Juve’s turn as they had double opportunity. Yann Sommer got down to push away the Nico Gonzalez angled drive after a release from Weston McKennie and later scrambled back to fingertip the Francisco Conceicao follow-up to a corner.

Randal Kolo Muani was also released with a header, but his half-volley got deflected inches over.

 Lautaro Martinez had a chance to open the goals account for the night but ballooned the Dumfries assist over from 10 yards as Juve gave the ball away cheaply.

Inter had another chance when Dumfries shrugged off Nicolò Savona to sprint down the right but smashed his shot against the outside of the near post on 44 minutes.

After Tim Weah’s decisive tackle on Taremi’s dangerous counter-attack, Di Gregorio fingertipped a Dumfries effort onto the upright.

Juventus eventually opened the goals chart with what became the winner in the 74th minute.

Kolo Muani got a loose ball on the edge of the area, spun around to extricate himself from a crowd of defenders, and when blocked off, it landed at the feet of Conceicao to sweep into the far bottom corner with the inside of the left boot from 12 yards, through Benjamin Pavard’s legs.

They almost made it two moments later, as Dumfries cleared the Koopmeiner’s angled drive off the line after beating Sommer.

Inter, in search of an equalizer, saw Marcus Thuram nodding over from a promising position, and Piotr Zielinski’s shot was charged down.

Sommer was again called to action when he fingertipped a Kolo Muani effort over the bar in stoppages.

Inter couldn’t find a way back into the game as Thuram hit his volley off target, marking  Inter’s third defeat of the season in Serie A.