ROME: A late goal from Edin Dzeko earned Internazionale a dramatic 2-1 win over Venezia to lift Simone Inzaghi’s Italian champions and leaders five points clear at the top of the table.

The hosts were poor in the opening stages, with Venezia, who were without numerous first-team players after a Covid-19 outbreak in the squad this week, racing into a shock lead through French forward Thomas Henry in the 19th minute.

Inter rallied and got themselves level through Nicolo Barella five minutes before the break, before creating several openings after the interval to complete the turnaround.

A winner looked set to elude the champions as the match entered the dying stages, only for veteran Dzeko to climb highest to snatch all three points for Inter in the 90th minute.

Inzaghi said: “The team believed until the end. The biggest problem is the San Siro pitch, it is becoming unplayable for both us and Milan. It is true we could have played better on this field, but objectively you can’t play the football we want to on that surface.

“Something needs to be done, it has never been like this and now we need to fix it.”

In Germany . . .

Borussia Dortmund battled to a 3-2 victory at European hopefuls Hoffenheim to close the gap on Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich as Erling Haaland made it 56 goals in 57 league games for the club.

The win lifted second-placed Dortmund to 43 points, three behind Bayern, who face Hertha in Berlin on Sunday.

Dortmund, looking to make it three wins out of three league games this year, made a strong start and Haaland tapped in for the lead in the sixth minute from Donyell Malen’s pass inside the area.

Haaland, who had to be taken off injured in the 63rd minute, has scored 16 times in the league this season. Andrej Kramaric’s sensational volley in first-half stoppage time drew the hosts level but the visitors struck again in the 58th minute thanks to Marco Reus.

Hoffenheim’s afternoon took a further turn for the worse when David Raum drilled the ball into his own net attempting to clear a Malen cutback to give Dortmund a two-goal lead.

Hoffenheim, battling for a Champions League spot, got back into the mix when Georginio Rutter caught the defence napping to latch on to a clever Munas Dabbur chip and slot in, but they eventually ran out of time. They dropped to sixth on 31 points.

Bayer Leverkusen stayed in third on 35 points with a 5-1 demolition of Augsburg courtesy of a Moussa Diaby hat-trick. Union Berlin climbed to fourth following their 2-1 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach , Max Kruse scoring a first-half penalty and a late winner to give Union victory.

In Spain . . .

Second-placed Sevilla fought back from two goals down but failed to close the gap on La Liga leaders Real Madrid as they were held 2-2 at home by Celta Vigo on Saturday, their second consecutive draw.

Sevilla moved on to 46 points from 22 games, three points behind Real Madrid and six ahead of Real Betis in third. The leaders have a game in hand and will host Elche on Sunday.

Celta took the lead shortly before half-time, scoring twice after two defensive mistakes in the space of three minutes, first through Franco Cervi and then Iago Aspas.

Sevilla fought back after the break and drew level midway into the second half, also with two goals in three minutes, with strikes from Papu Gomez and Oliver Torres.

Atlético Madrid scored twice in stoppage time to complete an extraordinary 3-2 comeback win over Valencia . The visitors led 2-0 through Yunus Musah and Hugo Duro before Matheus Cunha pulled one back for Atlético and Ángel Correa and Mario Hermoso struck in added time.

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