Atalanta relinquish Serie A lead with Cremonese draw
Atalanta wasted a chance to reclaim the Serie A lead when it was held to a 1-1 draw at home by promoted Cremonese on Sunday.
The result let unbeaten Atalanta second but level on points with leader Napoli and third-place AC Milan, the defending champion.
Cremonese defender Emanuele Valeri equalized in the 78th off a rebound for his first goal in the top division, four minutes ater Merih Demiral had put Atalanta ahead by redirecting a free kick from Teun Koopmeiners with a header.
Atalanta also had a goal disallowed by VAR ater the hour mark when it was determined that Caleb okoli had used his hand to deflect in a free kick from Koopmeiners.
Cremonese, playing in the top division for the first time in 26 years, had gained its first point last weekend against Sassuolo ater opening the season with four straight losses.
Atalanta produced twice as many shots as Cremonese (14 to 7) and dominated the possession
Emanuele Valeri’s 78th minute leveller earned Cremonese a point to leave Atalanta second. Gasperini’s side are level on 14 points with Napoli and reigning champions Milan, both winners on Saturday
but had trouble finding the target.
MILAN KEEP PACE: Junior Messias gave Milan the lead at Samp ater just six minutes when he fired in first time at the end of a neat passing move started by Rafael Leao.
Ten minutes later though, Leao collected a yellow card for raising an elbow and he was dismissed two minutes into the second half when he atempted an overhead kick and caught Sampdoria centre back Alex Ferrari in the face.
Against 10 men, the initiative briefly swung to Sampdoria and Filip Djuricic levelled in the 57th minute when he flicked a near-post header past Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan. Milan neted the winner 10 minutes later ater Gonzalo Villar handled olivier Giroud’s header from a corner and the Frenchman buried the penalty kick given ater a review by referee Michael Fabbri.
However Fabbri infuriated Samp coach Marco Giampaolo who was sent off in added time and admited ater the match that he had been given his marching orders for “calling him a dick”, angry at what he described as “one-way” officiating.
Another late strike from Marcel Brozovic gave Inter Milan a hard-fought 1-0 win over Torino to offer some relief from recent blues.
Simone Inzaghi’s side were staring at another poor result at the San Siro ater derby defeat to AC Milan last weekend and a midweek lesson from Bayern Munich until Brozovic delicately dinked home the winner.
The Croatia midfielder met Nicolo Barella’s inswinging cross by liting a superb finish over Vanja Milinkovic-savic which moved Inter fourth, two points behind Napoli. Defeat was harsh on seventh-placed Torino who played well and forced Samir Handanovic into a couple of good saves when the scores were still level.
Earlier, Giacomo Raspadori made Napoli provisional leaders of Serie A with the late winner in Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Spezia.
AC Milan moved level on points with the leaders, ater winning 2-1 at Sampdoria later in the evening despite playing almost the whole second half with 10 men.
In Naples, Italy forward Raspadori struck the decisive goal in the final minute of a stodgy encounter at the Stadio Maradona, puting Luciano Spalleti’s side one point ahead of Atalanta.
The 22-year-old swept home Hirving Lozano’s cross to net his first goal for Napoli on his second start ater arriving on loan from Sassuolo last month.