Second-half goals from Carlos Augusto and Marcus Thuram earned Inter a 2-0 win over lowly Como on Monday to keep them within touching distance of the Serie A summit.

The win took third-placed Inter to 37 points, three behind leaders Atalanta, who beat Empoli 3-2 on Sunday, and one behind second-placed Napoli, who won 2-1 at Genoa on Saturday. Inter have a game in hand on the top two.

Defending champions Inter dominated the first half but wasted a number of chances, with the unmarked Denzel Dumfries shooting over from close range and Federico Dimarco firing straight at Como veteran goalkeeper Pepe Reina.

Inter finally got on the scoresheet three minutes after the break when Augusto headed wide from Hakan Çalhanoglu's corner.

Man of the match Augusto made a crucial interception to deny Edoardo Goldaniga and Yann Sommer produced a fine save to deny Nico Paz.

Inter continued to push for an equaliser, but captain Lautaro Martínez had a 68th-minute effort ruled out for offside, extending his goal drought to over a month.

Thuram sealed the win two minutes into stoppage time with a powerful shot past Reina to move level with Atalanta's Mateo Retegui at 12 goals for the season.

"Even in matches in which we are not 100% brilliant, it's important to win," Inter centre-back Alessandro Bastoni said. "Especially because the others had already played and won, so we had to give a positive response."