MILAN: AC Milan’s problems with consistency continued as a poor performance saw them lose 2-0 at Sampdoria in Serie A on Sunday.

Milan didn’t even have a shot on target as late goals from Duvan Zapata, unintentionally helped by his cousin, and substitute Ricky Alvarez condemned the Rossoneri to their second defeat of the season.

“Samp were superior to us and deserved the victory,” Milan coach Vincenzo Montella said. “We didn’t perform. We were insufficient on a mental level and in our determination as well as technically.

“It’s a defeat which hurts us and we will have to understand why it happened. We’ll need to analyse everything without hiding ourselves.”

Milan slipped to sixth, six points behind leaders Napoli and Juventus who both have a maximum 18 points after winning on Saturday.

Inter Milan are two points below the top two after Danilo D’Ambrosio headed an 87th-minute goal to snatch a 1-0 win over Genoa, who lost their heads and had two players sent off.

Lazio are three points further back in fourth after Ciro Immobile continued his prolific run with another brace in a 3-0 win at struggling Hellas Verona.

Crotone won their first game of the season by beating Serie A newcomers Benevento who slumped to their sixth straight defeat. Rolando Mandragora and Marcus Rohden scored in a 2-0 win for last season’s escape artists.

Atalanta missed a second-half penalty at Fiorentina when Alejandro Gomez saw his effort stopped by Marco Sportiello but still grabbed a 1-1 draw to move up to ninth after Remo Freuler’s goal four minutes into injury time cancelled out Federico Chiesa’s superb 12th-minute opener.

Substitute Orji Okwonkwo scored in the 89th minute to give Roberto Donadoni’s Bologna a 1-0 win at 10-man Sassuolo and Chievo Verona won 2-0 at 10-man Cagliari thanks to Roberto Inglese and Mariusz Stepinski’s second-half goals.

There was a huge scare for Milan in the second minute as the referee awarded a penalty to Sampdoria for handball but changed his mind after video review, as Franck Kessie’s arm was against his back when it was hit by Ivan Strinic’s cross.

Sampdoria had a number of chances before eventually breaking the deadlock in the 72nd. Milan defender Cristian Zapata inadvertently nodded an attempted clearance straight at his cousin, Duvan Zapata, who scored with an emphatic shot from close range.

Alvarez, brought on in the 90th minute, added the second goal almost immediately when he was sent clear and placed a low shot inside the far post from the edge of the area.

Inter were heading for a goalless draw against winless Genoa at San Siro until D’Ambrosio scored with a far-post header from Joao Mario’s corner three minutes from time.

It was extremely harsh on Genoa whose frustration boiled over as Stephane Omeonga was sent off in stoppage time for pushing Eder when he had a clear run on goal and Abel Taarabt followed for a wild lunge on Yann Karamoh.

“There’s still a bit of difference with Juventus and Napoli, we have to narrow the gap by reconsolidating the certainties which should belong to a great club like Inter,” coach Luciano Spalletti said.

“This team hasn’t reached its limits yet ... we have to reach those limits and then surpass them.”

Immobile took his tally to eight goals in six games after converting a penalty and then scoring following a one-two with Adam Marusic to give Lazio a 2-0 half-time lead before the break and then teed up Marusic for his first Serie A goal on 60 minutes.

Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi was delighted that his side knew how to respond positively to their 4-1 defeat midweek to Napoli.

“On Wednesday we had a setback that we didn’t foresee, even though we were playing Napoli,” said Inzaghi. “One goal would have allowed Verona back into it at home, but we never risked it.”

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2017