10-man Inter held to 1-1 draw at Atalanta

Posted Monday, December 14, 2009 by AP

ROME (AP)—Serie A leader Inter Milan was held to a 1-1 draw at regional rival Atalanta on Sunday after being reduced to 10 men, while city rival AC Milan lost 2-0 at home to Palermo.

Simone Tiribocchi equalized for Atalanta in the 81st minute, beating Brazil defender Lucio not long after Inter midfielder Wesley Sneijder picked up his second yellow card for a late tackle.

Diego Milito had put Inter ahead in the 15th minute after dribbling around three defenders and Sneijder nearly made it 2-0 when he slammed a free kick against the crossbar in the 33rd, but by the end manager Jose Mourinho had little to smile about from his spot in the tribune.

Both Mourinho and Atalanta counterpart Antonio Conte were suspended for the game.

“We had the game in hand and then unfortunately Sneijder committed a foul and was sent off,” Inter assistant coach Giuseppe Baresi said. “It’s too bad, because Inter deserved to win.”

At the San Siro, Fabrizio Miccoli and Mark Bresciano scored for Palermo in the 49th and 62nd minutes, respectively, with Milan unable to take advantage of a couple well-placed crosses from Ronaldinho.

Milan also struggled in a 1-1 draw with FC Zurich in the Champions League this week.

“Handling fatigue with all these games is never easy,” Milan coach Leonardo said. “Today we weren’t at the same level as the last few games…We didn’t play poorly but we came up against a Palermo side that played better.”

Inter leads with 36 points, Milan is second with 31 and third-place Juventus — which lost 3-1 at Bari on Saturday—has 30.

Parma is fourth with 28 points after beating 10-man Bologna 2-1 with an 86th-minute winner from Nicola Amoruso, who had earlier missed a penalty.

AS Roma and Sampdoria are next with 25 points each following a 0-0 draw in the late match.

Sampdoria defender Marius Stankevicius hit the post with a header in the 34th and Giampiero Pazzini was unable to find the target with the rebound, while Roma created more in the second half.

Fiorentina followed its victory over Liverpool with a 2-1 loss at Chievo Verona.

Lazio beat 10-man Genoa 1-0 a day after 5,000 of the club’s fans protested over the team’s poor performance, while Livorno edged 10-man Catania 1-0, with Tomas Danilevicius scoring a late goal to spoil Sinisa Mihajlovic’s debut as coach of the Sicilian club.

Siena held on for a 2-1 win over Udinese, which was without Serie A top scorer Antonio Di Natale.