Serie A | Parma 0-2 Inter: Chivu conquers old club to soar at the top

Federico Dimarco and a last-gasp Marcus Thuram goal proved enough for Cristian Chivu to beat his old club Parma and send Inter four points clear of Napoli.

The Nerazzurri rotated the squad ahead of Sunday’s Scudetto showdown with Napoli, as Cristian Chivu returned to his old club. Denzel Dumfries, Davide Frattesi and Matteo Darmian missed the trip after a 3-1 win over Bologna. The Ducali were without Adrian Benedyczak, Abdoulaye Ndiaye, Zion Suzuki and Matija Frigan.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Edoardo Corvi flew to fingertip a Yann Bisseck strike from the edge of the area onto the top of the crossbar after 14 minutes.

Lautaro Martinez and Francesco Pio Esposito both had headers go just over the bar from very promising positions, but Parma nearly took the lead when Jakob Ondrejka’s acrobatic volley turned onto the frame of the back post from Emanuele Valeri’s cross.

Inter also clipped the frame of the goal moments later with Pio Esposito’s volley from 12 yards on a Petar Sucic cross from the left.

The offside flag went up when Federico Dimarco squeezed a finish past Corvi at the base of the near post from the tightest of angles with his right foot, but VAR showed the goal was valid on the Esposito assist.

Enrico Delprato nodded a Lautaro Valenti free kick over the bar, while Corvi denied Sucic a second Inter goal from a tricky angle on the Bisseck assist.

A powerful Henrikh Mkhitaryan strike was straight at Corvi, but Sucic really should’ve scored when he sprung the offside trap from Lautaro Martinez’s pass only to blast wide when one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Inter thought they had doubled their lead deep into stoppages with Ange-Yoan Bonny, beating Corvi one-on-one from a Nicolò Barella lay-off. However, it was disallowed following the VAR review for the Thuram handling offence in the build-up.

No sooner had play resumed from that decision than Inter had the ball in the net again, this time with Thuram running onto a ball over the top to surprise Nahuel Estevez and Corvi.

Dimarco 42 (I), Thuram 98 (I)