MILAN: Marcus Thuram shot Inter Milan second in Serie A with a hat-trick in Saturday's 3-2 win over 10-man Torino which moved the champions to within two points of league leaders Napoli.
France forward Thuram headed home first-half crosses from Alessandro Bastoni and Francesco Acerbi before bundling in his third on the hour mark to give Inter a narrow, but deserved win at the San Siro.
Inter can be overtaken by both Juventus, who host Cagliari, and AC Milan today with their local rivals at Fiorentina in the weekend's final fixture before the international break.
Thuram leads the scoring charts in Italy's top flight with seven goals alongside Mateo Retegui, who hit a treble of his own in Atalanta's 5-1 hammering of Genoa earlier on Saturday.
Back to near full strength, after the second string hammered Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League on Tuesday, Simone Inzaghi's Inter won their third straight match in all competitions since losing the Milan derby last month.
Thuram was involved in everything good Inter did going forward and was also left in agony on the ground by Guillermo Maripan's awful tackle in the 20th minute which left Torino a man down.
The 27-year-old could easily have been seriously injured but instead he punished Torino five minutes later with the first of two almost identical headers, the second of which came in the 35th minute.
Duvan Zapata pulled a goal back for sixth-placed Torino seconds later after poor defending by Yann Bisseck, but Thuram made sure of the points for Inter when he pounced on goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic's failure to hold Lautaro Martinez's header.
Inter have been less solid than when they romped to the Scudetto last season and Hakan Calhanoglu gave Torino some hope with five minutes remaining by bringing down Adam Masina and allowing Nikola Vlasic to cut the deficit from the penalty spot.
However Inter held out for a win which will leave them hot on Napoli's trail as their players head off to their respective national teams.
Retegui condemned his former club Genoa to a heavy defeat with his hat-trick at the Gewiss Stadium which which ensured Atalanta would move up to ninth on 10 points.
Ederson and Marten de Roon also scored with spectacular strikes as Atalanta crushed sorry Genoa, who scored late through Jeff Ekhator but dropped into the relegation zone on goal difference behind Lecce.
Argentina-born Retegui has settled in quickly in Bergamo since signing in the summer after Gianluca Scamacca suffered a serious knee injury, establishing a near-immediate connection up front with Ademola Lookman and Charles De Ketelaere.
The 25-year-old also supplied the pass from which Ederson lashed in Atalanta's third on the hour.
"I'm really happy, but not for myself, for the team, who played really well," said Retegui to DAZN.
"I can only thank everyone for how I've been treated over these first few months, I'm really happy."
Retegui opened the scoring by sliding in Lookman's low cross in the 24th minute and doubled the hosts' lead five minutes after half-time when he reacted quickest to net on the rebound after Ederson's shot was saved by Pierluigi Gollini.
He completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 74th minute after Alessandro Vogliacco was penalised for handball, making up somewhat for his fluffed spot-kick which denied Atalanta an opening Champions League win over Arsenal last month.
Saturday's convincing win came after another strong display on Wednesday, when Atalanta beat Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 in Gelsenkirchen in Europe's top club competition. - AFP