ROMELU LUKAKU capped off Inter Milan’s triumph in the Milan derby as the side hammered AC Milan 3-0 to move four points clear at the top of Serie A.

Lukaku set up Lautaro Martinez for an early opener and sealed the result in the 66th minute with Inter’s third. Martinez had doubled his tally early in the second half, during Milan’s best spell of the match.

“Lukaku works a lot and always makes himself available for the team,” Martinez said. “He is a great person and a great player, we are happy to have him with us. I am convinced that he can still improve a lot.”

Inter remained top but extended its advantage to four points over second-place Milan.

“It’s been a difficult week but we’ll get back on track,” Milan coach Stefano Pioli said. “If you told us a year ago, or even just three months ago, that at this point of the season we would be second, we would have leapt in the air with joy.

“That shouldn’t make us satisfied now. We have had three matches in which we haven’t managed to show our true qualities. We have the quality to continue to do well right until the end.”

The stakes in the Milan derby were higher than they have been in the last 10 years. The last time Inter and Milan went into the Derby della Madonnina occupying the top two spots in the table was in 2011, when Milan was above Inter.

The Rossoneri won that match and went on to win the league title — the last team other than Juventus to do so.

The match was more highly charged because the last time the two sides met in the Italian Cup quarterfinals Jan. 26, Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were involved in a heated confrontation that is currently under investigation by the Italian soccer federation.

(SD-Agencies)