Serie A

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·17 March 2024

Serie A | Inter 1-1 Napoli: Winning streak ended

After Champions League disappointment, Inter also ended their run of 10 consecutive Serie A victories, as Napoli earned a 1-1 draw at San Siro.

Both teams crashed out of the Champions League this week, but it was also the passing on of the baton between last year’s Scudetto winners and the runaway leaders. Victor Osimhen was only fit for the bench with a muscular issue and Piotr Zielinski did not start against what will be his future club, while Marko Arnautovic, Carlos Augusto, Juan Cuadrado and Stefano Sensi were still out for the hosts.

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These sides also met in January for the Supercoppa Italiana, the Nerazzurri scraping a stoppage-time victory.

Juan Jesus made an early block to stop Lautaro Martinez sliding on to the Federico Dimarco assist, but Alex Meret had to make a desperate double save, first on the Matteo Darmian diving header, then the Lautaro Martinez follow-up on the volley.

Hamed Junior Traore had an opportunity too and turned the diving header off target from Matteo Politano’s cross.

Inter broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time with a well-worked move that started from Yann Sommer, then moved with a series of passes from right to left, where Alessandro Bastoni rolled across for Matteo Darmian to sweep home from 10 yards, aided by a deflection off Mathias Olivera.

Stanislav Lobotka burst into the box after a give and go, but Hakan Calhanoglu made a crucial block.

After the restart, Meret made another save on Lautaro Martinez following his combination with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, then got behind a ferocious Dimarco free kick.

Napoli began to pour forward and earn a series of corner kicks, while Juan Jesus also crucially charged down the Nicolò Barella effort from close range.

Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa shinned over from a promising position and Giovanni Simeone’s header was straight at Sommer, but Napoli equalised when Inter gifted a corner with errors playing out from the back. Darmian was adamant he had not touched the ball last, but the corner was given.

That proved costly, as Politano’s corner was flicked on by Bastoni and Juan Jesus was unmarked to simply steer it in at the back post undisturbed.

It was a chaotic finale, Rrahmani was furious with Thuram for going down clutching his ankle after a challenge in the box.

the top is cut to ‘only’ 14 points.