Inter share spoils with Atalanta

On Saturday night, Joakim Mæhles Atalanta visited the defending Italian champions Inter. It was a breathtaking showdown with lots of goals, chances and warnings, where Mæhle got the last 20 minutes on the field.

Inter started like lightning and thunder and put heavy pressure on the visitors from Bergamo. Already after five minutes, it threw a score of its own. A hard pass ended up at the feet of Lautaro Martinez, who half-time first-timed the ball in behind Atalanta goalkeeper Juan Musso.

When Atalanta got a better grip on the game in the first half, the visitors turned the showdown upside down. First, Ruslan Malinovsky equalized with a finish from the edge of the box, and then Atalanta captain Rafael Toloi put the visitors ahead shortly after. Therefore, Atalanta could go to the break ahead with a single.

From the start of the second half, the home team came rumbling with everything they had. For long periods, Inter almost overcrowded the visitors' field, and Musso in the goal was very busy. With 20 minutes left in the match, the home side then equalized when Edin Dzeko picked up after a Musso save.

After the score, the high intensity continued. Both teams pressed on, and for large periods an attack at one end was immediately replaced by an attack at the other end.

If you thought that there was speed in the first 85 minutes of the match, then you only got more entertainment in the last minutes of the match. It all started with a bad intervention by Merih Demiral in the Atalanta defense. On a post, the Turkish stopper got his arm all the way up in Dzeko's head and there was a clear hit on the ball by Demiral's hand. It gave Inter the opportunity for a leading goal from the penalty spot.

Inter's striker was substitute wingback Federico Dimarco. The Italian hammered the ball on the crossbar, and then it went strongly the other way. The moment after, the ball was in the Inter net behind Samir Handanovic.

After Atalanta's big cheer after what they thought was their redemptive 3-2 scoring, the referee and the VAR room extinguished the Atalanta party. The ball was then played back to the back of the net, giving the visitors a chance to change things around.

That opportunity did not throw a score of itself, and therefore the two teams shared in the gate with the 2-2 result. Therefore, three of the two teams' last four mutual showdown at the San Siro ended in a draw.

For the table, the result means that Inter can be number four in Serie A when the current round of play is over. With the result, Atalanta gets a better grip on the other top teams in the table, as they temporarily move up to fifth place in the table.