Lautaro, Calhanoglu boost Inter to crush Monza in Serie A

Rome, Jan 14 (IANS) Inter Milan registered a comfortable victory as they beat Monza 5-1 away in Serie A with Lautaro Martinez and Hakan Calhanoglu bagging a brace respectively.

Inter were crowned the winter champion in the last round while Monza were coming off a 3-2 thriller over Frosinone.

The away side opened the scoring in the 12th minute when Calhanoglu converted a spot-kick, two minutes before Lautaro slid it in on Federico Dimarco's assist.

Calhanoglu made it 3-0 on the hour mark when Marcus Thuram's smart back-heel flick set up the Turk for a rocket.

Matteo Pessina pulled one goal back for Monza through a penalty.

As the home side just breathed a life back, Lautaro shattered their hope in the 84th minute as the Argentinean restored a three-goal margin by sending another penalty into the net, before Thuram put the icing on the cake with a low-strike.

With the win, Inter maintained their leading position on the table with 51 points, five ahead of second-placed Juventus who host Sassuolo on Tuesday.

Also on Saturday, Napoli ended their dismal run thanks to a 2-1 comeback victory over Salernitana, with Amir Rrahmani grabbing the last-gasp winner.

Elsewhere, Hellas Verona beat Empoli 2-1, and Genoa shared the spoils with Torino at 0-0.