Inter Milan shoot two points clear in Italy

Inter Milan´s Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic keeps his eye on the ball during their Serie A football match against AS Roma at Olympic stadium in Rome. Inter Milan won 4-1 at 10-man AS Roma on Saturday for a convincing victory in this top-of-the-table clash to surge three points clear of the Italian championship.

      ROME (AFP) - Inter Milan won 4-1 at 10-man AS Roma on Saturday for a convincing victory in this top-of-the-table clash to surge two points clear of the Italian championship.

      Ahead of Sunday's clashes, the highlight of which will be the Turin derby between Torino and Juventus, unbeaten Milan have a two-point cushion on Fiorentina who also kept their slate clean with a 3-0 win at tailenders Livorno.

      The Romans were quickly reduced to 10 men to hamper their task when Frenchman Ludovic Giuly was sent off.

      Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored from a 29th-minute penalty to put the visitors ahead at the Olympic stadium, though Simone Perrotta equalised for Roma in the 53rd minute.

      However further goals from Milan by Hernan Crespo, Julio Cruz and then Ivan Cordoba meant Inter had scored their four with more than 20 minutes to go till full time.

      For Roma, the defeat was particularly badly-timed with midweek European action looming.

      Following two draws against Fiorentina (2-2) and then Juventus (2-2), Luciano Spalletti's men travel to England on Tuesday to face Manchester United in the Champions League where they had been humiliated by a 7-1 defeat in the quarter-final, second leg of last season's competition in April.

      Reigning Italian champions Inter, still handicapped by the absences of injured players Patrick Vieira, Marco Materazzi and Cristian Chivu, and a suspension to Brazilian Maicon, made the most of a major mistake by Giuly, who did a handball in the middle of his own area following an Inter counterattack leading to the first goal.

      Giuly was shown the red card and Ibrahimovic stepped up to score from the spot.

      Swede Ibrahimovic has now scored five times within a week to put him on top of Italy's goalscoring charts with seven, one ahead of Juventus striker David Trezeguet.

      Inter made numerical superiority count and gave themselves the luxury of resting Ibrahimovic after the break when they brought on Hernan Crespo and Julio Cruz, for Frenchman Olivier Dacourt, as Roberto Mancini perhaps had one eye on Tuesday's home match against PSV Eindhoven which has taken on even more importance since Inter's opening defeat to Turks Fenerbahce in the Champions League group stages.

      Mancini's substitutions proved decisive as both Argentinians got on the scoresheet before Colombian defender Cordoba added Inter's fourth.

      Meanwhile, a double from Argentine striker Pablo Daniel Osvaldo helped Fiorentina to victory against long time Tuscan rivals Livorno.

      Osvaldo put Fiorentina ahead at the stroke of half-time in a bad tempered clash which saw the visiting coach Nando Orsi sent off for dissent during the break.

      Livorno were reduced to ten men after Massimo Loviso fouled Gianpaolo Pazzini after 63 minutes, allowing Osvaldo net his second when he chested down Mario Alberto Santana's pass and fired over the goalkeeper. Santana sealed Fiorentina's win three minutes later.