Serie A: Atalanta stun leaders AC Milan; Conte sees pink in Inter Milan draw

Atalanta consigned AC Milan to their second league defeat of the season with a 3-0 win at San Siro on Saturday, however Stefano Pioli’s facet had been nonetheless named ‘winter champions’ in Serie A.
A Cristian Romero header put the guests forward at halftime earlier than a Josip Ilicic penalty and Duvan Zapata strike accomplished a dominant victory for the Bergamo facet.Atalanta had the possibilities to win by an excellent wider margin as an out-of-sorts Milan put in one in every of their worst performances of the season.
The dwelling facet did not muster a shot heading in the right direction till debutant Mario Mandzukic drew an excellent save from Pierluigi Gollini within the 71st minute together with his first contact after coming off the bench.

“Today a lot of things were lacking,” Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic instructed Sky Sports.
“I don’t want to make excuses, you need to go into every game to get the result. Today we didn’t manage that.”
Milan nonetheless declare the title of winter champions as they high the standings on the midway level of the season with 43 factors, two forward of Inter Milan after their 0-0 draw at Udinese.
It’s normally an excellent indicator of what’s to return, as solely two Serie A winter champions have failed to complete on high for the reason that league reverted to twenty groups in 2004: Napoli in 2015-16 and 2017-18.”We’re midway there, which means we’ve performed nicely up till now,” Ibrahimovic added.
“Now is the most difficult period with a lot of games. We need to stay well physically.”
Atalanta moved into the highest 4 on 36 factors, a report tally for the Bergamo membership on the halfway stage of a Serie A season that includes 20 groups.
The guests began strongly and a objective appeared inevitable by the point Romero stooped to go in, whereas Ibrahimovic volleyed Milan’s finest probability of the primary half vast on the again submit.
Franck Kessie caught Ilicic within the face with an elbow early within the second half to concede a penalty that the Slovenian transformed.Mandzukic, who joined Milan on a free switch this week, got here on for his debut within the seventieth minute and wanted a matter of seconds earlier than testing Gollini’s reflexes with a close-range shot.
But Atalanta’s dominance continued as Zapata powered a header off the foot of the submit earlier than discovering the goal when he raced clear within the field to complete on the close to submit.
Conte sees pink as Inter Milan are held to Udinese stalemate
Inter Milan missed out on the prospect to go high in Serie A as coach Antonio Conte was despatched off for dissent in a 0-0 draw at strugglers Udinese on Saturday.
The guests travelled to Udine on a excessive after beating title rivals Juventus 2-0 final weekend however they couldn’t break down the decided hosts, who grew to become the primary crew to maintain a clear sheet towards Inter in Serie A this season.
Inter striker Lautaro Martinez got here closest when his first half shot drew a spectacular one-handed save from Juan Musso, however the guests’ frustration confirmed when Conte was dismissed for dissent in stoppage time.

“We didn’t agree about the amount of stoppage time,” Conte instructed Sky Sports.”The referee has to take his choices and we have now to simply accept them, even when we don’t agree.”
Conte’s facet stay second on 41 factors, two behind AC Milan on the midway stage of the season, whereas Udinese are 14th on 18 factors however with no win in 9 video games.
The Inter coach caught with the identical crew that defeated Juve, however his facet had been flat and failed to search out the web for the primary time in 21 Serie A matches, a streak stretching again to a 0-0 draw towards Fiorentina in July 2020.
It was a missed alternative as a win would have moved Inter forward of leaders AC Milan on objective distinction and be named winter champions after their rivals misplaced 3-0 to Atalanta.
“We need to look at ourselves, we can’t think about Milan and the fact that they lost,” Conte mentioned.”There is room for enchancment, immediately we may’ve been extra exact. Above all we had been missing high quality within the remaining ball, which is prime.
“We can and must improve from this point of view if we want to have ambitions of fighting to the end for something important.”
Martinez appeared sure to attain when he pounced on a free cross and fired a shot at objective, however Musso by some means saved it out with a one-handed save.
Nicolo Barella despatched a dipping volley over the bar, whereas the hosts additionally couldn’t discover their vary as Roberto Pereyra blasted over and Rodrigo De Paul shot narrowly vast.