Comfortable home wins for Internazionale and Roma mean the top two go eight and five points clear of third place at the top of Serie A.

Goals from Maicon and David Suazo added to a Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty to give Inter an easy 3-0 win over Lazio, while a first-half brace from Rodrigo Taddei eased Roma to a 2-0 win over Cagliari.

The matches were rescheduled from the fateful day in November when supporter fighting all over Italy saw Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri shot dead by a policeman while sitting in his car in an Arezzo service station.

Lazio had the first good opportunity just before the quarter hour, Goran Pandev sending a shot just wide from the edge of the box, while their 43-year-old keeper Marco Ballotta did well to deny Zlatan from a long-range free kick.

But Inter showed no mercy to their Roman guests, Zlatan making no mistake with a 22nd minute penalty after Nicolas Burdisso was adjudged to have been brought down by Guglielmo Stendardo in the Lazio box following a corner. The decision looked harsh but the Sweden star did not care, rifling the spot-kick into the roof of the net for his eighth league goal of the season.

The sides then traded chances - Tommaso Rocchi sending an inventive reverse flick just wide and David Suazo seeing a goal disallowed for offside after Ballotta parried a Maicon drive - but it was Inter who landed the next blow on 33 minutes when Maicon strolled through a static Lazio defence to poke a corner home from a yard out.

Inter were now comfortable, Burdisso and Walter Samuel shackling Lazio's attack without too much trouble, and they extended their lead on 54 minutes when Suazo nodded down a wonderful crossfield pass from Esteban Cambiasso before finishing low past Ballotta.

Luis Jimenez should have added another when, having done all the hard work with his chest and right foot to take the ball down and flick it between two Lazio defenders, he blasted over from inside the area, while Maxwell forced Ballotta into a good save when his deflected cross almost curled into the top left.

Lazio had two good efforts saved by Julio Cesar, first from Mourad Meghni and then by Rocchi, but Inter were never going to give this one up and maintained their three-point lead over Roma at the top of Serie A.

Italy's second placed team, meanwhile, continued to exert pressure on last season's champions with their own home win.

Brazilian winger Taddei - recently returning from injury with a goal in the 2-1 weekend win over Udinese - got his first of the night when he headed in from a David Pizarro pass on 28 minutes.

And he completed his double ten minutes later, profiting from good work by Mirko Vucinic and Amantino Mancini to guide the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the box.

Vucinic should have made it three later on when given two great opportunities, first from Francesco Totti and then from Mancini, who also had a good chance at the end, but Roma were content with the two-goal advantage and killed off the second half for the win.

Reda Maher / Eurosport