Inter Milan’s dim hopes of catching runaway Serie A leaders Napoli were hit hard when they fell to a shock 2-1 loss to relegation-threatened Spezia on Friday.
spezia traversed daniel maldini and M’Bala Nzolapenalty to beat Inter for the first time, with Romelu LukakuThe equalizing goal from the penalty spot was to no avail in the end.
– Broadcast on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (USA)
“In football, you don’t get discounts and we pay for those mistakes. It’s not right for Inter to lose to Spezia,” Inter manager Simone Inzaghi told DAZN. “We won’t sleep tonight.
“I take responsibility for the loss, but the guys gave it their all tonight. We just weren’t clinical enough.”
“This is football, defeats make you stronger. We had too many this season, especially away from home, and naturally the result is not satisfactory.”
Napoli leads Inter by 15 points before the leaders host Atalanta on Saturday. Simone Inzaghi’s team remains second with 50 points, just two points ahead of Lazio visiting Bologna.
AS Roma and AC Milan are three points behind Inter before hosting Sassuolo and Salernitana respectively.
Inter had the opportunity to take the lead early in the match when danilo d’ambrosio was committed by the defender Mattia Caldera and the visitors were awarded a penalty after a VAR check.
However, Lautaro MartinezThe attempt in the 14th minute was superbly saved by the Polish goalkeeper. Bartlomiej Dragowski.
“I wouldn’t focus on the penalty, but on the 20-30 shots on goal we had tonight,” Inzaghi added. “We should have done better with that. Then once we equalized, we clearly shouldn’t have awarded another penalty.”
Spezia then took the lead 10 minutes into the second half with his first shot on goal as Nzola battled two defenders inside the box before finding Maldini unmarked, who fired into the bottom corner of the net.
Inter scored another penalty after 83 minutes when Denzel Dumfries he was fouled and this time Lukaku was not wrong.
But Nzola completely ruined Inter’s night when he converted the third penalty of the game three minutes from time after Dumfries collided with the Spezia midfielder. Victor Kovalenko inside the box.
“Last season we did it very differently away from home. I don’t believe in bad luck in football, you win luck and we weren’t determined enough in our definition,” Inzaghi said.
The win helped Spezia avoid the drop as they remain in 17th place but are now six points clear of the bottom three.
