MILAN: Inter Milan missed the chance to climb back to the top of Serie A as they suffered a shock 2-0 home defeat by Sassuolo on Sunday.

The hosts fell behind after eight minutes with Giacomo Raspadori drilling a shot through goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, before Gianluca Scamacca headed into the net when unm­arked to double Sassuolo’s lead.

Inter were all at sea, and could have gone into the break 3-0 down when Domenico Berardi’s effort hit the crossbar.

After the break, the hosts piled on the pressure, with goalkeeper Andrea Consigli making several fine saves to keep the visitors in a commanding position.

Sassuolo should have put the game to bed with late chances, but two goals were enough as Inter remained second on 54 points, two behind leaders AC Milan but with a game in hand. Sassuolo climbed to 11th.

“I am very angry with how we played,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi told DAZN. “We had three days since Wednesday’s game [against Liverpool] and we talked about the fact Sassuolo beat Juventus and Milan away - we had to be wary.

“We tried to do everything in the second half, created so many chances and were unlucky, but the fact remains we should’ve had a different approach. We will analyse the situation. We know there are 13 games to go, we are all up there and want to keep going forward. The fact is, a team that wants to win the Scudetto cannot get the approach as wrong as we did today.”

Earlier, Fiorentina beat Atalanta 1-0 to stay in the race for a place in European competitions.

Krzysztof Piatek collected a cross from Nico Gonzales to score the winner from close range in the 56th minute. It was the fifth goal for the Poland international in his six games for Fiorentina. The forward joined the Italian club on loan from Hertha Berlin last month.

Fiorentina climbed to seventh, two points behind Atalanta in fifth and five behind fourth-placed Juventus.

Also in the Champions League mix are sixth-placed Lazio, who shorn of Serie A’s leading scorer Ciro Immobile, Luis Alberto and Lucas Leiva could only draw 1-1 at Udinese.

Maurizio Sarri’s side would have moved to within two points of the top four with a win but couldn’t add to their tally after Felipe Anderson struck on the stroke of half-time to equalise Gerard Deulofeu’s early opener for the hosts.

In a match between two teams threatened by relegation, Venezia and Genoa played to a 1-1 draw to remain 17th and 19th, respectively.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2022