Giuseppe Meazza Stadium was the place where Inter got a visit from Atalanta in tonight’s Serie A crunch match. We got tonight’s player ratings.
Inter Milan needed to get a new victory against Atalanta in order to remain strong at the top of Serie A. Before today’s match at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, Inter was only three points ahead of AC Milan at the top of the table. Facing Atalanta was one of the hardest tests they could get in this stage of the competition. Gian Piero Gasperini’s squad has been one of the most consistent throughout the last couple of years in Italian football. Today, they proved to be one of the toughest opponents even the Serie A leaders could get.
Antonio Conte knew he needed to command his players to close spaces between Atalanta’s midfielders and strikers. That was the key to getting a proper victory but scoring their goal was also incredibly difficult. Given Atalanta’s defensive solidity, Conte was betting on a set-piece opportunity to score his side’s winning goal. The moment came during the second half of the game through Milan Skriniar, it came early in the second half.
Conte protects the result for Inter.
As we told you before, these types of defensive matches are Antonio Conte’s specialty. Even though he gets criticized for not playing attractive football, he always gets the results he wants. Even during his time at Chelsea, he always got scrutinized for not making his players perform to their characteristics. Tonight, he knew he couldn’t make any defensive mistakes and he parked the bus as soon as Skriniar scored the goal.
Atalanta was close to scoring the equalizer a few times but the Inter defense prevailed. These tactical approaches tend to be risky when facing major opponents but Antonio Conte loves living life dangerously. In the end, his approach worked and he got the result he wanted. Now, Inter has 62 points as the Serie A leader with six units above AC Milan.
Player ratings
Inter Milan: Handanovic (6), De Vrij (7), Skriniar (8), Hakimi (7), Bastoni (7), Perisic (7), Vidal (6), Brozovic (7), Barella (7), Lukaku (6), Lautaro (6).
Bench: Eriksen (7), Gagliardini (6), Alexis (6), Darmian (6), D’Ambrosio (5).
Atalanta: Sportiello (6), Toloi (6), Djimsiti (5), Gosens (6), Romero (6), Maehle (6), De Roon (5), Freuler (6), Malinovskyi (6), Pessina (6), Zapata (5).
Bench: Ilicic (6), Muriel (6), Milanchuk (6), Pasalic (6), Palomino (5).
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