Italian Serie A NewsHiguain winner beats Inter to put Juventus top of Serie A
Higuain
Gonzalo Higuain late winner won Juventus the Derby d’Italia. The Serie A champions inflicted Inter Milan’s first domestic defeat of the season.
Higuain

Just like two seasons ago, a late Higuain strike stole the show at San Siro. Juventus held on to prove their title credentials in their bid for a ninth successive Serie A crown.  

Paulo Dybala opened the scoring inside the first four minutes with a left-footed strike. This he did just before Lautaro Martinez equalized for the hosts with a penalty awarded for a handball by Matthijs De Ligt.

A nervy second half reached its summit when Cristiano Ronaldo teed up Higuain and the Argentine kept his cool to strike past Samir Handanovic and bring Juventus back into the lead with 10 minutes to go.

The guests held on for a famous win, as Inter suffered their first domestic defeat of the season. This saw the Serie A champions leapfrog them to go top after seven games played.

Juventus winning the Derby d’Italia

Romelu Lukaku handed Inter a major boost as he returned to the starting XI to line up alongside Martinez after missing their midweek clash with Barcelona due to a quad injury.

Juventus coach, Maurizio Sarri made one change in attack. He replaced in-form striker Higuain with Dybala while sticking with a 4-3-3 formation instead of bringing in Aaron Ramsey as an attacking midfielder.

The game got off to a flying start as Dybala won possession in the Inter half. He dribbled his way to the box before unleashing a strike that flew between Milan Skriniar’s legs and past Handanovic to give Juve an early lead.

Inter grabbed a deserved equalizer when De Ligt goofily hit a Danilo D’Ambrosio cross with his elbow and gave away a penalty which Martinez coolly dispatched to bring Inter back on level terms.

Ronaldo thought he brought his side back in front when he hit the back of the net with a strike from the edge of the box. But the referee chalked off the goal for an offside by Dybala in the build-up.

The second half

The second part of the match started off on a slower rhythm as the two teams brought down the tempo to a more tactical approach.

Dybala squandered a good chance by missing the target four yards out before Marcelo deflected strike looked to have been heading in but curled away from goal and clipped the near post.

Higuain entered the fray with half an hour to go. He left a mark with his first chance of the game. A great piece of team play saw Miralem Pjanic’s defense splitting pass find Ronaldo, who slid in Higuain for one-on-one and the super sub emphatically finished off the move to bring Juventus back into the lead with 10 minutes to go.

Antonio Conte has lost his first game since taking charge of the club. Coincidentally, his first defeat while at Juventus came against Inter.