Sunday, January 16, 2022 at 10:44 PM• Mart van Mourik

Atalanta and Internazionale balanced each other on Sunday evening. In Bergamo, the teams failed to break the spell: 0-0. Due to the division of points, the score at the top of the Serie A has reached a boiling point, as the lead of league-leader Inter on city rivals AC Milan has fallen to two points. Atalanta occupied with eight points less compared to i Nerazzurri the fourth position in the Italian ranking.

The home team had to do without a large number of important names. Joakim Maehle, Duvan Zapata, Rafael Tolói and Robin Gosens were missing due to injuries, while Josip Ilicic and Ruslan Malinovskyi were in quarantine after a positive corona test. Hans Hateboer was absent from the Dutch, while Marten de Roon and Teun Koopmeiners were given a basic place in midfield. At Internazionale there was no Dutch input from the starting signal, although both Denzel Dumfries and Stefan de Vrij came in the second company.

The first chance of the match was noted by Inter, which became dangerous via Edin Dzeko. However, the striker headed just wide after a cross from the right. Ten minutes later Alexis Sánchez had a good chance to score the opening goal. The attacker tried his luck with a shot from the edge of the penalty area, but goalkeeper Juan Musso made a beautiful save. A few minutes after the break, Atalanta created the first serious danger when goalkeeper Samir Handanovic had to come into action to parry a shot by Matteo Pessina.

In the remainder of the second company, the opportunities followed each other back and forth. On behalf of Inter, Dzeko failed to open the score more than twenty minutes before time, while Luis Muriel killed a good chance for Atalanta. Once again Handanovic was decisive for the Milanese with an excellent save. In the final phase, the post still got in the way of a goal by Danilo D’Ambrosio.