AC Milan draw against Atalanta while Inter thrash Spezia

(Football news) Defending champions AC Milan were held to a 1-1 draw at Atalanta on Sunday as Ismael Bennacer strike cancelled out a first-half goal by Ruslan Malinovskyi in Bergamo. After an eventful start to the match, Atalanta midfielder Malinovskyi broke the deadlock in the 29th minute after a powerful left-foot finish from the edge of the box. Milan midfielder Bennacer then went onto score the equaliser from Alexis Saelemaekers corner in the 68th minute as he shot through the Atalanta defenders and into the net off the post. Milan after equalising dominated the possession and had more attempts on goal but failed to score a winner. Milan now host Bologna on Saturday and hope to get back to winning ways.

"I think we could have done better, we could have tried to win this match. It was difficult to find room, Atalanta were compact," Bennacer said after the match.

"We played against the Italian champions and we need to be satisfied," midfielder Mario Pasalic said. "We start again from here and we have proven that we can play at this level against the strongest also this year."

Inter Milan on the other hand cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Spezia in their first home game as they made it back-to-back wins for Simone Inzaghi's side. The Nerazzuri knew that a win at home would lift them to the top of Serie A standings. Lautaro Martinez, Hakan Calhanoglu and Joaquin Correa all scored for Inter in a game where they were never really threatened by Spezia. The hosts took the lead in the 35th minute when Romelu Lukaku headed the ball to Martinez outside the box as the forward struck it into the bottom left corner of the net. Spezia keeper Dragowski saved his side in the 40th minute when he stopped a shot from Dumfries with his legs.

Two minutes later, Lukaku was at the forefront again when he headed the ball onto the crossbar. Inter dominated possession in the first half but they had one goal to show for it, with Spezia not even having a single shot on target. Calhanoglu eventually doubled the lead in the 52nd minute after he received the ball inside the box and calmly slotted it beyond Dragowski. Correa put the final nail in the coffin when he slotted the ball into an empty net in the 82nd minute, after Edin Dzeko's assist from the left went past Dragowski. The win means Inter are now joint top of the standings with six points from two games.Spezia winless run against Inter extended to 7 in all meetings in Serie A and the Coppa Italia.

"We did well in both halves. Spezia have played earlier games very well. We knew they would create difficulties for us, but we prepared for the game in the right way," Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia.

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