The high-octane encounter between Inter Milan and Lazio led to tempers flaring after the club from Rome trumped Simone Inzaghi’s men 3-1 in Serie A on Saturday, thanks to a controversial goal from Felipe Anderson. With Inter fullback Federico Dimarco down injured, the Brazilian winger scored the late winner for Lazio only to infuriate the Inter players and the travelling fans.

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Inter’s players were calling for Lazio to kick the ball out of play when Anderson redirected a rebound of a shot from Ciro Immobile. However, the rules say the referee should interrupt play only when there is a risk of serious injury, which was not the case. Hence, the goal stood and Lazio further rubbed salt into Inter’s wounds when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic secured the three points with a header in stoppage time as Inter looked out of sorts.

With the loss, Inter Milan’s winning start to the season has tasted a slump after eight matches. Earlier in the game, Ciro Immobile had cancelled out Ivan Perisic’s first-half penalty with a penalty of his own.

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It marked a bitter return to the Stadio Olimpico for new Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi, who coached Lazio for the last five seasons after also spending the bulk of his playing career with the Roman club.

Inzaghi acknowledged, “We lost our heads.

“That shouldn’t happen, because the referee can let play continue and there were 10 minutes plus stoppages to go. We should’ve kept playing.”

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Inter remained in third place but dropped five points behind city rival AC Milan, which came back from two goals down for a 3-2 win over Hellas Verona at the San Siro.

Although Napoli can reclaim the lead on Sunday if they beat Torino to extend its perfect start.

Meanwhile, Lazio, which moved up to fifth, had been slow to adapt to Maurizio Sarri’s fast-paced attacking game but beat Roma in the city derby late last month and is developing into a tricky opponent.

“Inter had the ball when Dimarco went down, so if someone should have kicked it out it was them,” Sarri said. “There’s not much to debate. They attempted to score with a man down then we continued to play.”

With inputs from the Associated Press