European roundup: Pedro helps Lazio go top; Lille bounce back

Lazio’s Felipe Anderson, Luis Alberto and Pedro secured a 3-1 home victory over Internazionale that took their side top of Serie A on Friday as the visitors dropped their first points of the season on coach Simone Inzaghi’s return to his old club. Lazio had two great chances through their captain Ciro Immobile and a third from striker Mattia Zaccagni before Anderson, who had been perfectly set up by Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, put the hosts ahead with a 40th-minute header at the Stadio Olimpico.

The visitors equalised from a free-kick as the defender Denzel Dumfries nodded the ball to the unmarked Lautaro Martínez who netted from close range in the 51st minute. A minute later, Inter went close to taking the lead when Dumfries got his head to Federico Dimarco’s high cross and sent the ball bouncing off the ground just in front of the Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel, who managed to tip it over the bar.

However, the substitute Luis Alberto restored the lead for Lazio with a sublime strike from distance in the 75th minute, and Pedro made it 3-1 four minutes from time.

“We’ve been sending some good signals lately, as we go through periods of being under pressure without actually risking much at the back,” the Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri said afterwards. “This team has gained in solidity and organisation, so we are capable of beating anyone on the day, but our problem has always been consistency.”

“The defeat stings because of the way it happened,” Inter’s coach Simone Inzaghi said. “Luis Alberto’s goal broke the game. At 1-1 we had Dumfries’ chance that would have changed things.“

Lazio are provisionally top with seven points from three games, with Inter a point behind in fourth place. In the early-evening game Udinese beat the