Inter Milan edged Roma 1-0 on Saturday to snatch top spot in Serie A

while Colombian winger Juan Cuadrado hit an injury-time winner to give

champions Juventus a 2-1 win over city rivals Torino 2-1.

Chilean defender Gary Medel scored the only goal of the game at the

San Siro on the half-hour mark with a long-range drive which beat Roma

keeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Roma, who had been top at the start of the day after five successive

wins, had chances to salvage a point but were denied by a string of fine

saves from Samir Handanovic in the Inter goal.

Roma’s misery was compounded by a red card for Bosnia star Miralem Pjanic after 73 minutes.

“A team is like a house, if you don’t have solid foundations, it will

sink,” Inter coach Roberto Mancini told Sky Sport Italia in reference

to his team’s seventh win by a 1-0 margin.

In the Turin derby, Paul Pogba put Juventus in front after 19 minutes

but Cesare Bovo looked to have saved a point for Torino early in the

second period.

However, substitute Cuadrado, on loan from Chelsea, grabbed the

winning goal which lifted Juventus into 10th spot, nine points behind

Inter.

Juventus went into the match sitting in 12th place, with coach

Massimiliano Allegri coming under intense pressure following some poor

recent results.

“We had 12 points after 10 rounds, so tension was only natural,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.

“The team reacted well, obviously we have to improve a lot, but this was a small step forward.”

For their part, the visitors –- who won the last time these sides met

back in May -– were buoyed by the fact they entered the clash above

Juve in the table for the first time since 1993.

However, Torino boss Giampiero Ventura had a lengthy injury list to

contend with, missing Danilo Avelar, Alexander Farnerud, Alessandro

Gazzi, Pontus Jansson, Joel Obi, Nikola Maksimovic and Josef Martinez.

Allegri took the bold decision to drop Cuadrado to the bench and hand

a start to Hernanes, though the former would enter the game early in

the first half following an injury to Sami Khedira. 

Elsewhere for the hosts, Andrea Barzagli slid into central defence to

cover for Giorgio Chiellini, with the latter suspended following his

red card in the midweek loss to Sassuolo.

Just before the 20-minute mark, Juventus were in front.

Paulo Dybala allowed a pass from Cuadrado to run beyond him to Pogba,

and the French midfielder fired a first time effort beyond Daniele

Padelli into the back of the net.

It was a well-taken goal that saw Pogba begin to put his recent poor

form behind him, and the strike marked Juve’s earliest goal of the

season thus far, while providing the ideal way for the 22-year-old to

mark his 100th Serie A appearance for the club.

Juventus dominated the rest of the of the first half, although

Leonardo Bonucci had to be alert to block a good effort from Fabio

Quagliarella just before the break, the former Juve striker having

previously narrowly missed with an earlier attempt.

Torino returned for the second 45 minutes in much more determined

fashion, earning a free-kick on the edge of the box shortly after the

restart which helped pull them level. 

Bovo saw his initial effort blocked, before following up with a

left-footed shot that Juve goalkeeper Gigi Buffon was powerless to

prevent.

Minutes later, the captain made a fine save from a Kamil Glik header,

while both Pogba and Hernanes had long range shots for Juve which

failed to find the target. 

The game appeared to be petering out into a draw after Bonucci turned

a free kick onto the crossbar and Claudio Marchisio saw his effort

blocked from the rebound, but there was late drama to follow.

Pogba stole into the Torino area deep into injury time, and Cuadrado

bundled the ball home on the goal line to clinch all three points.

“The truth is that we fought hard to the end and when you work this hard, the results do come,” said Cuadrado.