MILAN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Inter Milan were far from their best but a late 1-0 win over relegation-battling Lecce at the San Siro on Wednesday was enough to give them a healthy lead at the top of the Serie A standings.
Inter move to 46 points, six ahead of both AC Milan, who are away to Como on Thursday, and Napoli.
The home side were boosted by defending champions Napoli's 0-0 draw with Parma earlier on Wednesday, but for a long time it looked like Inter would fail to take advantage.
Inter laboured against a stubborn Lecce side before substitute Francesco Pio Esposito scored from a rebound with 12 minutes remaining for what could end up being a major turning point in this season's title race.
"A great team victory, even the players who don't play as much are always ready to help the team," Inter midfielder Carlos Augusto told DAZN.
"The first half was complicated, but that was our own fault as we were too slow with the ball. We weren't quite ourselves but you can't score five goals in every game."
Ange-Yoan Bonny, in for the rested Lautaro Martinez, created an early chance for himself, dancing his way past three Lecce players in the area but his shot was parried away by Wladimiro Falcone at full-stretch.
ESPOSITO TO THE RESCUE
From an almost identical situation, Bonny, surrounded by the Lecce defenders, was awarded a penalty by the referee but a VAR check ruled that Danilo Veiga had played the ball.
Inter huffed and puffed for the rest of the opening half, desperation pushing Henrikh Mkhitaryan to take a chance from distance, smashing his strike well over the bar and into the stands.
Falcone punched away a Nicolo Barella header from close-range shortly after the break and easily gathered a shot from Andy Diouf as the hosts continued to struggle to open up a dogged Lecce defence.
The loudest applause of the night came when Martinez was launched from the bench with less than 20 minutes remaining and the replacement played a large part in Inter finally finding a way through.
Martinez had a volleyed effort parried away by Falcone and Esposito was quickest to react and slammed home the rebound to the relief of the home crowd.
Lecce remain 17th in the standings on 17 points, three points above the relegation zone.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
