Mauro Icardi brace paces Inter Milan to 3-0 win at Lazio

A brace by Mauro Icardi sandwiched a goal from Marcelo Brozovic to lead Inter Milan to a thorough dismantling of Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico Monday.

The win was the sixth straight Serie A win for the Nerazzurri and elevated them into a tie for second with Napoli. It was the fourth win over Lazio in the last six matches for Inter.

“The performance was vital and it must always be vital for us,” said Inter coach Luciano Spalletti following the match. “We need to manage the game as we did in the first half because in the second half we gave the ball away too much which allowed Lazio to create some problems for us. This win shows that we’re on the right road because you can’t play like that unless the groundwork has been laid in the previous matches.”

Icardi picked up his first goal of the match in the 28^th minute after Lazio’s defense struggled to clear out the danger. Icardi was able to find the back of the net.

Brozovic collected his second goal of the season four minutes before halftime as his blast of well outside the area made its way past virtually the entire Lazio team and beyond a diving Thomas Strakosha.

“He has a compass in his feet,” Spalletti said of Brozovic. “He knows football and can pass the ball cleanly in his area of the pitch. He’s a fundamental player for us.”

Lazio, coming off Europa League win against Marseille midweek, never found an answer after the break. For the entire match, Lazio managed just 39 percent of the possession and levied just four shots on goal.

Icardi, who has been on a hot streak in Serie A of late — scoring four goals in the previous three Serie A matches — found his brace in the 70^th minute after a brilliant cut-back and shot in the lower corner, past Strakosha.

Lazio didn’t lose any position in the table as they remain fourth on 18 points.

Inter will be back in action on Nov. 3 when they face Genoa who have drawn with Udinese and Juventus in their last two outings.

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