Palermo have moved out of the Serie A relegation zone with a 1-0 home win against Inter Milan.

The hosts started the contest brightly as Fabrizio Miccoli tested Samir Handanovic from a Santiago Garcia pull-back after just six minutes.

Then four minutes later Josip Ilicic put Palermo ahead with his fifth goal in a row. Miccoli dispossessed Matias Silvestre inside the Inter penalty box and teed up Ilicic to fire home from the edge of the box.

Miccoli came close to making it 2-0 to Palermo minutes later with a free kick that Handanovic kept out, before Javier Zanetti was stretchered off with an ankle injury following a collision with Salvatore Aronica.

Ricky Alvarez had a chance to level the game for Inter before the break, but his volley went just wide.

Palermo were once again on top in the opening minutes of the second period as Juan Jesus blocked a Miccoli shot from the right side of the Inter penalty box, before Massimo Donati flashed his shot wide from 20 yards.

Miccoli created another glorious chance for himself when he took an attempt at the top corner, but Handanovic made a good diving save to keep the scoreline 1-0.

Inter came back into the contest thereafter as Alvarez created two chances in as many minutes, but on both occasions his efforts went narrowly wide of the mark.

Andrea Ranocchia had a good chance to win the game for the Nerazzurri with eight minutes left on the clock, but saw his header from a good position go wide.