Inter beat Juventus in controversial fashion as Napoli maintain pace

(Football news) Inter Milan edged out Juventus 1-0 after a controversial penalty gave the Nerazzurri an important victory in a bid to regain their Scudetto. Juve wasted a number of chances in the opening minutes with Giorgio Chiellini guilty of missing the most glaring opportunity of them and his subsequent error led to Inter earning a penalty in first-half stoppage time following a VAR review. The home side were left furious with the decision, but felt justice was done when Wojciech Szczesny saved Hakan Calhanoglu's penalty, only for the referee to disallow the save and retake the penalty, which the Turkish midfielder converted to give Inter the lead.

The goal did not change the balance of play as both Paulo Dybala and Dusan Vlahovic went close to an equaliser in the second half, before Samir Handanovic made a brilliant save off Denis Zakaria's strike onto the post. It remained one-way traffic as Juve had 23 shots at goal to Inter's five, but could not make the pressure pay, as the visitors defended well and held on to seal all three points. This was Juve's first league defeat since November and now leaves them on 59 points in fourth in the standings, four points behind Inter in third, with the champions now three behind leaders AC Milan.

Inzaghi said “I honestly feel little pressure because I’m further ahead of what I was aiming for in terms of results and trophies.It’s normal for Inter to be under pressure after failing to get results over the last few games,” he added, “but we’ve missed important players in the last few games Now we’re right back in it to chase, some will say that we are still favourites but we have not won here at the Allianz Stadium for eleven years. We haven’t done anything yet,”

Inzaghi said, “this is a moment that must give us confidence in our pursuit of Napoli and Milan.”

On the penalty that his team scored the only goal of the match from, the coach said, “Yes it was, and then Calhanoglu also scored a goal after, the penalty shouldn’t have needed to be retaken because there was nothing in it.”

Inzaghi said that Honestly “there were few difficulties, when they hit the crossbar there had been a foul on Handanovic.In the second half there was an opportunity for Zakaria but then the guys allowed Juve little and we know how strong a team they are.”

Napoli produced a clinical performance to beat Atalanta 3-1, a win which sees them level on points with AC Milan at the top of the Serie A standings. Atalanta had all the majority of the first-half openings but found themselves 2-0 down at halftime when Lorenzo Insigne's penalty and Matteo Politano's fine finish put the visitors well on course for an easy victory. In the second half, Atalanta kept coming forward and deservedly got themselves back into the contest with a 58th minute header from Marten de Roon, but with several other chances having come and gone as they couldn’t find a equaliser

With Atalanta committing bodies forward to find the elusive equaliser, title-chasing Napoli put the game to bed nine minutes from time as Elif Elmas scored from a well-worked counter attack. Napoli celebrated this victory at the final whistle as they joined AC Milan on 66 points at the top of the standings, although AC Milan will face Bologna today, which can see them get their three point lead back. Luciano Spalletti's Napoli will look to make history by winning their first Scudetto since 1990. The defeat meant that Atalanta's top four hopes were extinguished, with Gian Piero Gasperini's team remaining in sixth spot and eight points behind fourth-placed Juventus.

Spalletti after the match said “We have made some steps forward, especially in terms of character, Today we showed that we are a top-level team against a team that is difficult to face.There is still a long way to go (in the title race), we will see how many games we will win like this. We must not let our guard down."

The other results were: