MILAN —

Inter Milan provided plenty of late drama as Marcelo Brozovic’s last-gasp goal earned it a 1-0 Serie A victory at Sampdoria in a game featuring a number of VAR controversies.

Inter struck two goals in the last five minutes to beat Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League Tuesday and again left it late Saturday as Croatian midfielder Brozovic struck the winner deep into stoppage time.

The win left Inter in seventh place with seven points from five games, five points adrift of leader Juventus which is in action Sunday at Frosinone. Sixth placed Sampdoria is also on seven points.

The Milan club was left furious in the wake of their 1-0 defeat by Parma last weekend after the video assistant referee (VAR) was not consulted for a potential handball inside the box.

VAR thwarted them again when Radja Nainggolan’s first-half strike was judged to be offside in the build-up before Kwadwo Asamoah also had a goal disallowed following a review, this time because the ball went out of play.

Sampdoria then looked to have snatched the win when Gregiore Defrel found the net late on, but he too was found to be offside by VAR.

Brozovic’s late strike then prompted huge celebrations from the Inter bench and Spalletti was sent off in the melee.

“Winning this way shows the character of this team, which stays in the game fighting for every ball,” Spalletti told reporters.

Earlier, Fiorentina moved into second place with an impressive 3-0 win over in-form SPAL in Florence.

The visitors started the season brightly with three wins from their opening four games, but Stefano Pioli’s young side enjoyed a surprisingly comfortable evening as they strolled to victory.

Marko Pjaca opened the scoring after 18 minutes with his first goal for La Viola, before Nikola Milenkovic and Federico Chiesa added strikes either side of the break.

In the first game of the day, a sensational solo goal from Gervinho was the highlight of Parma’s 2-0 victory against Cagliari.

Kane scores as Tottenham

returns to winning ways

Harry Kane became Tottenham’s joint fifth highest scorer as he helped his side earn a 2-1 Premier League victory over Brighton & Hove Albion Saturday.

Kane moved level with Jermain Defoe on 143 goals for the London club as Tottenham put behind them successive defeats by Watford, Liverpool and Inter Milan in all competitions to climb to fifth in the Premier League table.

Kane opened the scoring from the penalty spot on 41 minutes. Brighton had a goal ruled out for offside and substitute Erik Lamela added Tottenham’s second with a neat finish on 76 minutes. Anthony Knockaert’s stoppage-time effort was a late consolation for the hosts. — Agencies