The Inter team defeated the Atalanta team 2:0 in a match from the 29th round of the Italian Serie "A", sportal.bg reported.
After a goalless first half, the guests took advantage of a distraction in the opponent's defense and took the lead with a goal by Carlos Augusto (55'), who intercepted a cross from a corner. Until the end, the hosts were unable to create a dangerous enough situation to equalize and deservedly lost, as shortly before the end of regular time Lautaro Martinez (87') put an end to the dispute with a second goal.
The Argentine scored another goal a quarter of an hour earlier, but it was canceled due to a violation. The two teams also finished the match with a reduced squad, with Ederson from Atalanta and Alessandro Bastoni from Inter receiving two yellow cards each. Meanwhile, the coach of the Bergamo team, Gian Piero Gasperini, who watched the match from the stands, was also sent off.
This was the third match between the rivals this season, with the "Nerazzurri" continuing their total dominance against the Bergamo team throughout the campaign. The previous two matches, Simone Inzaghi's men won 4:0 (Serie "A") and 2:0 (Italian Super Cup). Overall, Gasperini has not won against Inter since Inzaghi took over the Milanese giants, who have already won eight consecutive times in this coaching clash.
This opened a six-point gap in favor of the Milanese, who are already leading the standings alone. Atalanta, on the other hand, has not won at its own stadium "Gevis" since the beginning of 2025.
In addition, Gasperini and company missed the opportunity to further complicate the intrigue for the title, as earlier in the day Napoli made a wrong step against Venezia, ending 0:0. If Atalanta's team had won, the three contenders for the "Scudetto" would have been on equal points.
It was interesting that Gasperini made only one change among his starters compared to the 4:0 defeat against Juventus in the last round of Serie A. She was in the attack itself, which this time was personally led by Ademola Lookman, and behind him Pasalic started instead of Cuadrado.
Compared to the 2-1 victory against Feyenoord last week in the 1/8-final second leg of the Champions League, Simone Inzaghi made several changes. Bastoni started in place of Bisek, Barella appeared instead of Fratesi, and Martinez returned for the first referee's signal.
The guests could have shocked their ambitious opponent after just seven minutes of play, when Thuram shook the right side post with a powerful shot. Shortly after, Dumfries also tried their luck, and in the first quarter of an hour the "nerazzurri" completely controlled the game.
However, they missed their chance to crush the Bergamasco team, which they could have bitterly regretted. In the 19th minute, Pasalic intercepted a sharp cross, and the visitors' goalkeeper - Sommer, stretched as far as he could to clear the ball into a corner. Two consecutive corner kicks followed, but Gasperini's men were never able to come up with anything creative to fool the "nerazzurri".
After these turbulent moments, the rivals slowed down the pace and concentrated the battle in the middle of the field. This changed in the minutes after 30, when the players gathered new strength and began dangerous descents towards both halves, from which, however, nothing dangerous came of it.
Nevertheless, there were several interesting situations, and in the first of them the tension rose after a sharp collision around the touchline, where Dumfries collapsed to the field, and the referee stopped the game for a while. The away player was not injured and got back on his feet without having to be substituted or receive medical attention.
Shortly after, the "nerazzurri" poured the ball into the Bergamasco penalty area, where Bastoni found his way well, but shot high and inaccurately. From the away team's camp, the interesting thing came in the final seconds of regular time of the first half, when Lookman made an impressive sprint along the touchline, then entered the opponent's half, but Sommer did not have to intervene again.
Very little football was played at the beginning of the second half and five minutes after the game resumed, the match was stopped by a corner kick for the away team. The reason was a problem with a fan in the away fans' section, which caused the match to be stopped for a while and medical teams went into the stands to help the fan.
This event seemed to distract the home team, who allowed three players in white sportswear to stand unattended in the penalty area. Thus, when taking the corner kick, Augusto was completely uncovered and intercepted, opening the goal, guarded by Marco Carnesecchi.
Unfortunately, the goal did not open the match and interesting chances were lacking in the following minutes, as the Bergamo team took their press high. The "Nerazzurri", for their part, arranged their defense extremely competently and did not allow the ambitious opponent to shower Sommer's goal with chaotic shots.
This hurt the hosts, who cracked too easily several times, and even Lautaro Martinez scored a goal. Before the ball crossed the goal line, however, the referee's signal was sounded, as the visitors' striker came too sharply into goalkeeper Carnesecchi and the match continued with the score 0:1.
About ten minutes before the end of regular time, Gasperini's men finally managed to take a shot, after Samardzic walked along the penalty area line and shot, but his shot went high over the crossbar.
After the goal kick was taken, the visitors reached another corner, and in this situation one of the turning points in the match occurred. Then, in an apparently completely calm atmosphere, Ederson from the hosts began to wave his hand nervously and made sarcastic comments about the referee for what he considered a saved foul. The replay showed that the play of the "nerazzurri" was completely clean, which made the Atalanta player's protests even more pointless.
This finally broke Gian Piero Gasperini's men and they played the rest of the match in their own half.
In the 86th minute, a long pass reached defender Bisek, but he did not show a goal-scoring flair and instead of sending the ball back into the Bergamasco net, he deflected it to the side. Just a few seconds later, however, the inevitable happened and Lautaro Martinez scored a goal that was suspected of being offside, but upon review of the situation it became clear that the striker was in a legal position and the goal was recognized.
This was the Argentine's seventh goal against the Atalanta team in total.
The situation heated up after these events and Gasperini himself demonstrated that, like Ederson, he could lose his iron discipline and received a direct red card for his intemperate behavior.
However, that was not all and in the fifth minute of added time Alessandro Bastoni committed a stupid foul for which he received a second yellow and a red card, respectively. Thus, the "nerazzurri" also finished the match with 10 men.
This only further extended the playing time, as the referee already extended the game by 11 minutes due to the delay in play at the beginning of the second half.
The loss prevented Atalanta from recording a second consecutive victory in the championship, which happened to the team from Bergamo for the last time before the new year.
Inter recorded a second consecutive success, after in the last round Simone Inzaghi's boys defeated the last Monza with 3:2.