With constant ball possession and rarefied outbursts, Inter manage to never let Atalanta have a shot on goal, taking advantage of the first opportunity offered by the home team to sink the winning shot with Lautaro. A very tactical match with flashes of spectacle, which allows Chivu to return to the top of the standings and costs Palladino the first home defeat out of three total of his management. It is Inter’s ninth consecutive success in the direct clash.
The visitors’ initial forcing produced Akanji’s conclusion, suggested by Dimarco from the left flag, saved again for a corner by Kolasinac. It’s the 8th minute and the game is tactically closed again. Hien is marking Lautaro and the returning Djimsiti is marking Thuram, while in midfield Pasalic, wide on the left in possession, De Roon and Ederson take care of Calhanoglu, Zielinski and Barella. Ederson fires an unbalanced shot from distance three minutes from the twentieth minute, revealing the difficulties of the Bergamo team under construction, because Chivu’s 3-5-2 cuts all the passing lines. In the 22nd minute, Luis Henrique widens the diagonal by resuming a Pasalic-De Roon two-man defensive closure on Thuram’s pass from the left, who then tries a weak, central turn, but it is in the 27th minute that Carnesecchi has to stretch out to thwart Lautaro’s left-footed shot after outrunning Djimsiti. Palladino’s team doesn’t even sting during the Scamacca-Zappacosta counterattack with the winger winning the rebound with Akanji, who came out very high, but raises his aim a meter from the right top in the 33rd minute.
Two minutes ahead for Thuram, who crosses very well in line with Zielinski and Lautaro, but the check detects the Argentine assistman’s offside. We arrive at half-time at a slower pace, except for the De Ketelaere-Ederson break with a returned cross from Zalewski that was too long for Scamacca and Pasalic.
At half-time Zappacosta suffered a strain in his right flexor and was replaced on the right flank by Musah. The game restarts. At the tenth Zalewski, launched long by Ederson, had his shot saved with his feet by Sommer, but was offside, nullifying De Ketelaere’s support on goal, then Luis Henrique launched by Dimarco dribbled everyone except the Atalanta goalkeeper who blocked his way out: Barella came running, but kicked out.
In the 17th minute Scamacca is in an irregular position following De Ketelaere’s pass. Three minutes and Djimsiti’s error in the horizontal clearance gives Inter the advantage, with new substitute Pio Esposito serving Lautaro with the left-footed cross to make it 1-0. In the 36th minute, with the substitution slots exhausted, Djimsiti with another blind relief, this time with his head, serves Pio Esposito who volleys high from the edge with his left foot. Three minutes into the ninetieth minute, however, Samardzic, who entered the Bergamo 4-2-3-1 after halfway through the second half, failed to equalize by opening the left plate too much, served to him beyond the spot by De Ketelaere. Inter takes the three points and the top of the table.
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