Inter comfortably out-played Juventus in the Derby d’Italia, as Nicolò Barella assisted ex-Bianconeri star Arturo Vidal and then scored the second himself.

This wasn’t just a Derby d’Italia, but also a battle to see who would be the main Scudetto contenders to chase down leaders Milan. The Nerazzurri had practically a full squad to choose from, with ex-Juve midfielder Arturo Vidal, but Matthijs de Ligt, Alex Sandro and Juan Cuadrado had COVID-19 with Paulo Dybala injured. Both teams had to play extra time in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday.

There were fireworks let off outside the stadium by the Curva Nord, Inter ultras, creating quite a lot of smoke in the arena for the first few minutes.

Juve had the first chance, Adrien Rabiot stinging Samir Handanovic’s gloves, but Federico Chiesa was offside when he set up Cristiano Ronaldo to score on the rebound.

However, Inter took the lead when Nicolò Barella’s cross with his left foot sailed over Lautaro Martinez for a Vidal header, getting in front of Danilo from six yards. It was the Chilean’s first Serie A goal for the Nerazzurri and he did it against his former club.

Wojciech Szczesny then flew to palm away a Romelu Lukaku counter, with Lautaro Martinez ballooning the rebound over the bar.

Romelu Lukaku turned Giorgio Chiellini brilliantly, but the veteran got back for a second tackle and Lautaro again fired off target.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a couple of long-range efforts, but the Bianconeri were far too predictable. Instead, Barella was dominant in midfield and set up another big chance that Lukaku scuffed into the arms of Szczesny.

The Juventus goalkeeper had to be at full stretch to punch a cross off Lukaku’s head.

Inter doubled their lead after the restart with a fantastic searching pass from deep by Alessandro Bastoni, as Barella sealed his MOTM status with a great first touch, sprinting away from defenders to blast into the roof of the net.

Andrea Pirlo made a triple substitution and Weston McKennie immediately made an impact with a towering header smothered by Handanovic, but Alvaro Morata’s similar attempt was over the bar.

Lautaro Martinez ran half the length of the field only to curl wide again and Rodrigo Bentancur’s effort was charged down, but Juve seemed to be completely lacking ideas and enthusiasm.

They only genuinely tested Samir Handanovic with a Federico Chiesa snapshot on 87 minutes, readjusting to palm it away with one hand.