Atalanta 1-1 Inter: Miranchuk strike prolongs Nerazzurri´s winless run

Aleksey Miranchuk struck 11 minutes from time to earn Atalanta a 1-1 draw against Inter in Sunday’s cagey Serie A clash, denying Lautaro Martinez the match-winning glory.

The Lombardy rivals have now won just two of their last 13 games between them and neither side really got going in a low-quality contest at the Gewiss Stadium.

Martinez guided Ashley Young’s cross away from Marco Sportiello just before the hour mark to open the scoring for Inter, who had Alexis Sanchez back in their line-up and brought on Romelu Lukaku in the second half.

Arturo Vidal squandered a glorious chance to double the visitors’ tally and that proved a costly miss as Miranchuk found a late equaliser, leaving Inter sixth in the table and a point below their opponents.

Hans Hateboer had a header routinely kept out by Samir Handanovic and Ruslan Malinovskiy fired over from a good position in a first half of few chances.

The closest Inter came to a breakthrough before half-time was through Vidal’s looping header that dipped too late and ended over the crossbar.

Yet it was the visitors who took the lead 58 minutes in thanks to Martinez’s glanced header after being picked out by Young eight yards from goal.

Vidal should have doubled Inter’s lead seven minutes later but he was denied from a one-on-one by Sportiello, who also kept out Nicolo Barella’s follow-up attempt.

Inter have struggled for clean sheets this season and they were unable to hold on to their lead here as substitute Miranchuk controlled the ball and drilled into the bottom corner.

That made Miranchuk the first Russian to score in Serie A since Viktor Boudianski for Ascoli against Palermo in May 2007, and Atalanta could easily have snatched the win, only for Luis Muriel to plant a diving header wide from six yards.

Both sides had late penalty shouts turned down, with Lukaku going to ground moments after Danilo D’Ambrosio got away with a high boot in the other box, as the contest finished all square.