Four days ago, Como went to France and scored nine. On Sunday night at San Siro, Inter beat them 2-0 — and by the time the lights came up in Florence, the whole title race had been squeezed into a single point.
Inter needed 19 minutes. Federico Dimarco robbed Lucas Da Cunha to start the first one, Marcus Thuram's disguised pass sent Djed Spence down the right, and Francesco Pio Esposito tapped in from a couple of yards. Seven minutes later Dimarco started the second one too, Piotr Zielinski's roll across was half-cleared by Alex Valle straight to Thuram, and the Frenchman swept it home from six yards. Two transitions, two goals, game managed from there. Como's first real save for Josep Martinez to make did not arrive until the 63rd minute, and when Nico Paz finally found his moment late on, his first-time strike clipped the frame of the goal.
It finished Inter 2, Como 0 — Inter's 12th straight Serie A win over Como, the longest winning streak they have ever put together against a single opponent in this competition. Cesc Fabregas did not hide from it afterwards. “We have to congratulate Inter, who played much better than us,” he said. “The way we lost hurts, with those balls that we gave away too cheaply. That makes you lose confidence because Inter are very strong in transition — the strongest in Europe.”
That is the same Como who won 9-1 at Lens on Wednesday, who arrived at San Siro fourth in Italy and fourth in the Champions League, on a six-match winning run in all competitions. Beating Lens made history. San Siro was the examination, and Inter — beaten in the Milan derby last weekend, then 3-0 winners at Feyenoord in midweek — passed it for them. Como leave in fifth, still three points clear of sixth, with their season intact and their ceiling measured. Inter leave one point off the top.
They are one point off the top because of what happened at lunchtime in Naples. Lazio went to the Maradona unbeaten, on six straight league wins, and played like leaders for a half: Gustav Isaksen twice went close before Tijjani Noslin led the counter and slipped in Davide Frattesi, arriving late, for his fourth goal of the season. Napoli were in open crisis — defeats by Juventus and Porto in the past week, the sporting director calling the situation “unacceptable” before kickoff — and the afternoon was going the way afternoons have gone for them lately.
Then Gennaro Gattuso's injuries handed them the way back. Lazio lost Josip Sutalo to a muscle problem in the first half and took Nuno Tavares off at the break. Three minutes into the second half, Tavares's replacement, Alfonso Pedraza, stretched to stop Scott McTominay volleying in Noa Lang's cross and turned the ball into his own net. Napoli pushed for more — Christos Mandas had to be outstanding to keep out McTominay and Kevin De Bruyne — but a point was the point. It is the first time all season Napoli have taken anything from a league game after going behind. Lazio's winning run is over; their unbeaten one is not.
Gattuso, back at the club he used to manage, found his dressing room silent. “I went into the dressing room today and it was like a morgue,” he said. “I like that the team is disappointed today. We're proud of these lads. Coming here at a moment like this is never easy, so we have to be satisfied.” Across the divide, Max Allegri keeps his breathing room: Napoli stay tenth on 15 points, and the break hands him two weeks he badly needs.
The third act played in Florence, where Juventus trailed inside four minutes — Mateo Pellegrino heading in a Pedro Goncalves corner — levelled through Nick Woltemade's first Serie A goal, fell behind again to Alieu Njie bundling in a rebound, and rescued themselves a second time when Gleison Bremer beat David de Gea to a Douglas Luiz corner. Radu Dragusin thought he had won it late for Fiorentina; the goal was ruled out for a push on Bremer. Two-two, and Juventus go into the break seventh on 18 points — their worst start to a Serie A season since they managed 15 from 11 in 2021-22. Luciano Spalletti said it plainly afterwards: “In some moments we decided not to make decisions, we just stay there and accept the situation, without taking action or the initiative. Doing something takes away the doubt, but when you wallow in the doubt, you never manage to be in control of a situation.” Fiorentina, who led twice against the team they hate most, climb to 15th on nine.
So the table the break freezes in place reads like this. Lazio top on 29, unbeaten in 11. Inter second on 28, with the league's best attack — 28 scored. Roma third on 27, unbeaten too, their 31 goals a club record at this stage after Saturday's 3-0 against Sassuolo. Milan fourth on 24 after winning at Genoa. Como fifth on 23. Juventus seventh, 11 points off the top, looking up at Frosinone in sixth.
Rome is the quiet marvel in all of it. Lazio and Roma have both gone unbeaten through the first 11 rounds — the first time in Serie A history two clubs from the same city have done it in the same season. Neither was supposed to be here. Lazio's own coach keeps saying they do not belong up there and that the celebration comes at 40 points. They are 11 points from his party with 27 rounds to play.
The race resumes on Saturday November 21, when Lazio host Lecce and Como try to restart against Cagliari, and it gets its next real test a day later: Atalanta vs Inter in Bergamo, the champions away to the last team that knows how to make them suffer. One point at the top, two unbeaten Romans, and the strongest transition team in Europe — by the word of the man they just beat — one point behind. That is a race worth the two-week wait.
Sources · 5 sources
- Reuters — Leaders Lazio held by Napoli, Inter move within a point at the top (November 8, 2026)
- Football Italia — Inter 2-0 Como match report; Napoli 1-1 Lazio match report; Fabregas, Gattuso and Spalletti reaction pieces (November 8, 2026)
- TNT Sports — Inter vs Como and Napoli vs Lazio match records and reaction (November 8, 2026)
- Opta (via Football Italia / TNT reporting) — Inter's 12 straight Serie A wins over Como; Lazio and Roma the first same-city pair unbeaten through 11 rounds
- TheStatsAPI / MyFootballFacts — Serie A table after Matchday 11 (Lazio 29, Inter 28, Roma 27)
Every kick from San Siro — lineups, final score and the full match record — is in the Game Center for Inter vs Como. The race lives on the Serie A front, and the test this piece paid off was set up in Cesc Fabregas' Como Scored Nine in France — Now They Get Inter.
