Inter thrash Torino in Serie A opener

Milan, Aug. 27: Inter Milan began their bid to reclaim the Serie A title with Monday's 5-0 hammering of sorry Torino in Cristian Chivu's San Siro debut as coach.

Alessandro Bastoni got the ball rolling in the 18th minute with a brilliant glancing header before Marcus Thuram -- who struck in each half -- Lautaro Martinez and new boy Ange-Yoan Bonny made sure of a comfortable victory for the hosts.

Inter are expected to be Napoli's main challengers for the Scudetto after conceding the title on the final day of last season, which ended with a traumatic thumping at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.

"What happened last year happened last year.. all we can do is keep doing our best for Inter," said Thuram, who was man of the match in front of his father, France icon Lilian, and his brother Khephren.

The 20-time Italian champions looked far from the exhausted, ageing outfit taken apart by PSG in May, even if the starting line-up featured only one new player in Petar Sucic.

It was Sucic who laid on Thuram for his first goal of the new campaign in the 36th minute with a beautiful pass in behind Torino's sloppy defence.

Martinez then pounced on a dreadful Gvidas Gineitis pass to slide home the third six minutes after half-time and 10 minutes later Thuram then made the scoreline reflect the balance of play by heading home Bastoni's brilliant deep cross.

And Thuram's replacement Bonny got in on the act in the 72nd minute after more dreadful passing from Torino in front of their own penalty area which allowed the France under-21 forward to rattle in the fifth. "Coming back to the San Siro as a coach is great but I'm trying to concentrate on what I need to do and my responsibilities," said Chivu, who won the treble with Inter in 2010.

Chivu is a novice and joined Inter in the close season after a handful of matches in charge of Parma, his first senior coaching job.(AFP)