Inter will spend the night as Serie A leaders after coming back from two goals down to beat Empoli 4-2 at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. A Lautaro Martinez brace, a rare Alexis Sanchez strike and an own goal from Simone Romagnoli cancelled out Empoli’s shock 2-0 lead and placed pressure on rivals AC Milan ahead of their trip to Verona this Sunday.Inter knew that they needed three points in this Friday night clash to stay in the race to defend the Scudetto they’d won last year. Whether it was the pressure that got to them or Empoli simply had a desire to upset their title chances, it didn’t start well for the Nerazzurri.Just appreciating this masterpiece of a build up from Empoli pic.twitter.com/3kBNPIsuZ6— 0810 (@Gideoomatic) May 6, 2022 Just five minutes into the match, Andrea Pinamonti, who is in fact, Inter’s player on loan with the Tuscan club, made it 1-0 to the visitors and looked genuinely sorry about it. But whatever he felt – Inter were facing a problem.It’s gotten even worse just before the half-hour mark when Kristjan Asllani made it 2-0 by squeezing the ball through the legs of Samir Handanovic.Home fans had their head in their hands, but there was still plenty of time for Simone Inzaghi’s men to turn it around. They were helped by Gli Azzurri, though. Simone Romagnoli inexplicably diverted a Federico Dimarco left-hand side cross into his own net to get Inter back in the game.We were back where we started in the last minute of the first half when Lautaro Martinez swept into the net past Guglielmo Vicario to level.The Nerazzurri regained the momentum just in time to run out back onto the pitch after the break and put their opponents under some real pressure. And it paid off. Attack after attack was somehow repelled by the Tuscans, but one poor clearance was gleefully hammered into the net by Martinez for his second goal of the night and one that put the still-reigning champions in front.Empoli never looked like spoiling the night for Inter and even the forgotten man Alexis Sanchez scored deep in injury time to ensure the win and give Inter fans another confidence boost.Olivier Giroud is waiting for lightning to strike twiceNow it’s up to Stefano Pioli and his Rossoneri to respond to the challenge!SERIE A – ROUND 36FridayInter – Empoli 4-2 (2-2)/Romagnoli 40 og, Martinez 45, 64, Alexis Sanchez 90+4 – Pinamonti 5, Asllani 28/22:00: (3.90) Genoa (3.40) Juventus (1.98)Saturday16:00: (3.50) Torino (3.45) Napoli (2.10)19:00: (2.40) Sassuolo (3.45) Udinese (2.90)21:45: (1.45) Lazio (4.40) Sampdoria (7.25)Sunday13:30: (6.25) Spezia (4.40) Atalanta (1.50)16:00: (2.95) Venezia (3.30) Bologna (2.45)19:00: (2.45) Salernitana (3.25) Cagliari (2.95)21:45: (4.90) Verona (3.60) Milan (1.75)Monday21:45: (2.50) Fiorentina (3.35) Roma (3.05)***odds are subject to change
