Late goals from substitutes Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Manuel Akanji helped Inter to a 2-0 victory over Lecce on Saturday at Stadio Via Del Mare. 

The victory sees Cristian Chivu's side extend their unbeaten Serie A streak to 14 matches, while also increasing their cushion at the top of the table to 10 points. 

But Inter were made to work for their victory as Lecce dug in to deny the visitors a routine passage, with Luis Henrique seeing a controlled volley saved early on despite a heavy deflection. 

Marcus Thuram and Francesco Pio Esposito also saw efforts on target denied, with the latter's glancing header tipped around the post superbly by Wladimiro Falcone. 

Federico Dimarco thought he finally put Inter ahead seven minutes after the break, sneaking in to send Thuram's low cross into the net, but the goal was ruled out for an offside against the Frenchman after a VAR review. 

Mkhitaryan finally broke the deadlock in the 75th minute, side-footing a simple volley off Dimarco's half-cleared corner into the bottom corner to end Lecce's resistance. 

Akanji followed suit to end the contest seven minutes later, rising highest to flick in a header off Dimarco's corner and strengthen Inter's position at the summit. 

Data Debrief: Assist king Dimarco reigns supreme 

With his assist for Akanji's goal, Dimarco became the first defender to provide at least one assist in five straight appearances across the last 20 Serie A campaigns (since 2006-07). 

Inter have now also won their last nine Serie A away matches, keeping a clean sheet in the last six. Only once in their top-flight history have the Nerazzurri recorded a longer run of consecutive away wins – 11 between October 2006 and March 2007 under Roberto Mancini. 

The Nerazzurri were full value for the win, producing an appropriate 2.15 expected goals (xG) to trump Lecce's modest 0.12 xG.