Inter on Sunday kept their title defense alive with a 1-0 win at Juventus thanks to a controversial retaken penalty which moved them three points behind leaders AC Milan and SSC Napoli, 3-1 winners at Atalanta BC.
The champions came away from the Allianz Stadium in Turin with a narrow win in a bad-tempered match decided by Hakan Calhanoglu’s spot-kick which was scored at the second attempt five minutes into first-half stoppage-time.
Inter stay third with a game in hand and extend to four points the gap between themselves and third-placed Juve, who would be 10 points off the pace with seven games remaining if Milan beat Bologna yesterday after their unbeaten league run ended at 16 matches.
Photo: AP
“It’s a huge step for us. We know that we’ve dropped points lately, but we’re going to try to recover them over the remaining eight games,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said.
Events turned on the final few minutes of the first half, with bedlam breaking out after Inter were awarded a penalty for Alvaro Morata treading on Denzel Dumfries’ foot.
Calhanoglu’s weak first effort was saved by Wojciech Szczesny and from there chaos ensued, with Inter’s players celebrating after the ball was clumsily bundled in by Juve’s defenders only for that goal to be ruled out for a foul.
A video assistant referee check then showed that Matthijs de Ligt, who stopped Calhanoglu from scoring from the rebound, had encroached in the penalty area, allowing him a second chance to slam home the opener which was taken with gusto.
Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri was livid on the sidelines, but kept his cool after the match, saying that his team were “out of the title race,” despite being the better team.
Napoli prevailed in Bergamo thanks to Lorenzo Insigne’s early penalty, a sweet Matteo Politano volley eight minutes before halftime and a stunning late breakaway finished by Eljif Elmas just as Atalanta were pushing for an equalizer after Marten de Roon pulled a goal back in the 59th minute.
“We believe, we’ve always believed,” Insigne said of Napoli’s title hopes. “There are still seven matches to go and they’re seven big matches, so we need to face them in the right way.”
Defeat for Atalanta continued their dismal home record this season and left them in seventh place, eight points behind fourth-placed Juve.
They have ACF Fiorentina just a point behind them following their 1-0 win over Tuscan rivals Empoli.
Three points ahead of Atalanta are AS Roma, in fifth, after they won 1-0 at UC Sampdoria thanks to a beautifully-worked goal scored by Henrikh Mkhitaryan to extend their unbeaten league run to 10 matches.
Samp stay in 16th on 29 points, seven from the relegation zone and four ahead of Cagliari, who were thumped 5-1 at Udinese thanks in part to a Beto hat-trick.
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