MILAN: Hakan Calhanoglu finally missed a penalty for Inter Milan after scoring a stunning equaliser as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by leaders Napoli in Serie A on Sunday.

The match was a rollercoaster for the 30-year-old Turkey midfielder, who scored a superb long-range goal to cancel out Scott McTominay’s opener for Napoli.

However, he then hit the post with a penalty, his first miss for Inter from the spot to end a streak of 19 successful efforts and his first penalty miss since November 2016, when he played for Bayer Leverkusen.

The result tightened the race at the top of Serie A, with Antonio Conte’s Napoli leading the way on 26 points. Atalanta, Fiorentina, Inter and Lazio all have 25 points with Juventus just behind the four teams right on Napoli’s heels.

While disappointed to let three points slip from their grasp, Inter manager Simone Inzaghi was satisfied with his team’s performance.

“I congratulated the team, if there was one side that should’ve won, then it was Inter. The second half was dominated by us,” Inzaghi told DAZN.

“We went behind on a set play situation where we shouldve done better, but we kept our heads and did not allow Napoli practically anything. “We hit the woodwork twice, missed a penalty, so I don’t know what more we could’ve done. We could probably have made more of our chances, but let us not forget the strength of the side we were facing.”

The visitors took the lead in the 23rd minute against the run of play when McTominay pounced to poke home from close range after a corner was flicked on.

Two minutes before the break, Calhanoglu equalised with a powerful strike from outside the box, whi­ch beat Napoli keeper Alex Meret before nestling in the top corner.

Inter took control in the second half, pressing relentlessly and going close on several occasions, before Calhanoglu shocked San Siro in the 74th minute, hitting the post with his penalty after a soft foul on Denzel Dumfries which enraged Conte as VAR officials did not intervene.

“Can they [VAR] only intervene when it suits them? A decision from the referee like this can transform a match and VAR cannot do anything about it?,” Conte told DAZN.

Despite his frustration with refereeing decisions, Conte was satisfied with his team’s performance against the Italian champions.

“I said that we would not come here to just be sparring partners against the strongest squad in Serie A, so it was important for us to face them with strength, character, acce­pting duels all over the field,” he said.

“On that score, I am very satisfied. It was not easy to play here, we all know that we are making improvements and working hard. There were too many errors, a lot of technical errors, but I am sure there will be further improvements.”

Second on goal difference are Atalanta, who won their sixth straight league match after coming back from a goal down at half-time to beat Udinese 2-1.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s side came through thanks to Mario Pasalic’s leveller 11 minutes after the break and an own goal from Isaak Toure moments later.

Buoyant supporters jokingly chanted “we’re going to win the league” after watching their team battle back after going behind on the stroke of half-time to a thunderous strike from Hassane Kamara.

“You can’t stop fans from dreaming... but the reality is that there’s no point talking about the Scudetto now,” said Gasperini.

Fiorentina are also one of the quartet right behind Napoli — as are Lazio who won 1-0 at Monza — thanks to Moise Kean’s first professional hat-trick, which earned his team a 3-1 win over Verona.

Kean has scored 11 times in all competitions for Fiorentina since signing from Juventus in the summer, and his treble moved his new team up to third following a sixth straight league win.

The 24-year-old has been reborn in Tuscany after failing to score a single goal at Juve last season,

AS Roma sacked Ivan Juric less than two months after he was hired to replace Daniele De Rossi as they languish just four points above the relegation zone in 12th following a 3-2 defeat to Bologna in front of livid fans, a large chunk of whom decided to leave at half-time in protest.

Former Italy coach Roberto Man­cini is reportedly set to become Roma’s fourth coach of 2024 following Juric, De Rossi and Jose Mou­rinho, who was fired in January.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2024