Italian Serie A- Inter Beat Livorno 2-0 and Increases its Advantage as Leader

Last Sunday during their visit to Livorno in the Armando Picchi Stadium, Internazionale managed to increase their advantage as leader. Currently, Milan is seven points ahead of Juventus, its closest rival, and remains in first place of the Italian Serie A standings with 28 points. Inter managed to add those points after defeating Livorno with a score of 2-0. And with this loss, Livorno fell to sixth position in the Italian soccer league. Moreover, the 3-2 defeat of Juve against Napoli last Saturday was another factor that helped Inter to stay ahead in the standings with 7 points. During this Sunday's match, despite the fact that the Nerazzurri did not show their full potential, they did an acceptable job. They could face some Amaranto that for several minutes of the first half knew how to defend themselves bravely. Although it wasn’t an emotional game, during the development of the first part it was the home team who was in charge of controlling the actions and its opponent. Milan’s game got complicated a bit since the team had to cope with the five midfielders, who were in charge of giving a strong fight. Among these midfielders was Antonio Candevra, who added some excitement to the game with a play that put in danger the contrary’s goal. In a free-kick action, Candevra launched a powerful shot that seemed a certain goal for Livorno, but Julio Cesar, Inter’s goalkeeper; amazingly diverted the shot over the net. After the diverted goal, the last 45 minutes of the game went slowly, lacking definition by both teams. Inter efforts to approach the rival’s area were poor and even Livorno tried, but they were unable to penetrate Julio César’s goal. Keeping with this monotonous tone and making it nearly impossible to raise the spirits of all the fans present, the teams closed the first half. In the start of the second half, the Beneamata tried to raise their level of play in order to animate the match. Their intentions seemed to work since at minute 49 up came Diego Milito. The player intercepted a ball and didn’t let up until he sent a powerful shot directly to the bottom of Francesco Benussi’s net. Benussi couldn’t do anything to stop it. With this play, the score was at 1-0 in favor of the squad led by José Mourinho. After this, the pace of the game fell back into the same unvarying routine actions that marked the beginning of the game. All the action was concentrated in the center of the field without any of the two teams having options to move forward. Despite the bad game, the Inter players were the ones maintaining control of the ball, a factor that allowed them to run and advance towards the rival’s area, where the Livorno players were cautious in their defense. This advantage allowed Brazil's Maicon Douglas Sisenando to overcome the weak defense of the Labronici at minute 80, scoring with a left shot Inter’s second goal. With this second scoring, Inter attained a victory that allowed them to temporarily secure their lead.