Inter Milan moved three points clear at the top of Serie A with a spectacular 5-0 win at Genoa.
Jose Mourinho's side gained revenge for their 1-0 defeat at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris inflicted by Genoa's city rivals Sampdoria three weeks ago with victory in a one-sided game.
Esteban Cambiasso opened the scoring in the sixth minute before Mario Balotelli and an extraordinary goal from Dejan Stankovic put the Nerazzurri firmly in command at half-time.
Patrick V! ieira and Maicon completed the rout in the second half as Inter moved three points away from Sampdoria, who can draw back level with the defending champions by winning at Lazio tomorrow.
Like last season when the two sides met at the Luigi Ferraris, Inter took an early lead to put Genoa immediately on the back foot.
Javier Zanetti hoisted a long free-kick forward from just inside the Genoa half and no defender managed to clear the danger as the ball fell for Cambiasso, whose shot on the turn took a telling deflection off Francesco Modesto to spin past Marco Amelia.
The goal brought an abrupt end to a bright opening from Genoa and the game was easy from that point on for Inter, who almost scored a second when Wesley Sneijder sent Stankovic through on goal, but he dragged his shot wide of the far post with just Amelia to beat.
Stankovic had two further chances to score as Genoa lost track of the Inter playmaker, but he headed and volleyed wide resp! ectively.
The second goal came in the 31st minute when ! Cambiass o stole the ball in midfield before feeding Sneijder, who in turn sent the ball into the path of Balotelli. The young forward made no mistake, drilling past Amelia into the far corner.
Omar Milanetto's goal in the 40th minute was rightly ruled out for offside, and that attack was only a rare punctuation in Inter's dominance.
Stankovic put the cherry on top of a perfect first half for the Nerazzurri, adding an astonishing third goal deep into stoppage time.
Amelia came a long way out of his goal to make a clearance, but the ball, without bouncing, approached the Serbian, who instinctively volleyed it back into the vacant goal from the halfway line.
There was no let-up for Genoa in the second half either as Balotelli came close to a fourth as he headed Sneijder's free-kick straight at Amelia, who made an instinctive save from point-blank range.
Half-time substitute Vieira added the fourth in the 66th minute when he used his strength to hold o! ff Modesto before volleying the ball past Amelia from 10 yards.
Genoa's heads dropped and they could no longer do the simple task of clearing the ball from inside their own penalty area.
Three Rossoblu defenders got in each other's way with the ball falling kindly to Maicon, who made no mistake in passing the ball past Amelia for the fifth with 20 minutes remaining.
Former Inter striker Hernan Crespo made his entrance for Genoa, but the damage had already been done as the defending champions picked up a morale-boosting win ahead of their Champions League clash with Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday.
