Milan: Inter Milan fell further behind in the Serie A title race on Sunday after a scrappy 1-1 home draw with Champions League-chasing Roma left them 11 points behind leaders Napoli.
Matias Vecino equalised with a late header for Inter after Stephan El Shaarawy had capitalised on awful defending to clip home goalkeeper Alisson’s huge clearance in the 32nd minute to open the scoring.
Uruguayan Vecino met a whipped Marcelo Brozovic cross to beat an outstanding Alisson, who had made two superb second-half saves from Mauro Icardi, and keep Luciano Spalletti’s side in the top four, level on 43 points with third-placed Lazio and three ahead of Roma.
However, they are winless in six games in the league and no longer look like title contenders, while Roma, who stay fifth on 40 points, have fallen even further behind after picking up just 10 points from a possible 24 since beating Lazio in mid-November.
Eusebio Di Francesco’s side are now 12 points behind Napoli, who extended their lead at the top to four points when Dries Mertens ended a long goal drought to give his team a 1-0 victory at Atalanta.
Belgian international Mertens’s 65th-minute strike ended a league dry spell that stretched back to October 29, getting behind the defence and flashing his 11th goal of the season past Atalanta goalkeeper Etrit Berisha.
“He [Mertens] had shown some signs of improvement even without scoring goals, so the drought was relative. It was obvious he’d get back to scoring goals eventually,” said Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri.
