Inter were crowned Serie A champions on Sunday afternoon as Sassuolo and Atalanta played out a 1-1 draw at the Mapei Stadium, with each of the two sides ending the game with just ten men.
Atalanta came into the weekend as the only side capable of prolonging Antonio Conte’s side wait for the Scudetto, but they had to win in Reggio Emilia and despite going ahead through Robin Gosens having already been reduced to ten men, they didn’t have enough to get over the line and Domenico Berardi equalised for the hosts in the second half.
After dominating the early stages of the game, Atalanta’s already-tricky task became all the more complicated when Pierluigi Gollini’s lapse of judgment left him stranded outside of his box and, having been beaten by Jeremie Boga, the goalkeeper brought down the Neroverdi player to be shown a straight red card.
The ten men got their noses unexpectedly in front through Robin Gosens. A nice exchange in the area looked to have ended when Ruslan Malinovskyi overhit a pass, but the German managed to reach the ball and fire across Andrea Consigli for the opener.
Atalanta thought that they had scored a second before the break, but Duvan Zapata’s header was disallowed as Hans Hateboer had been offside as the initial cross came into the box.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s side were their own worst enemies, though, and Rafael Toloi rather needlessly shouldered Junior Traore’s back to give the Neroverdi a penalty. Berardi stepped up and, as he tends to, finished past Marco Sportiello to draw things level and edge Inter closer to being confirmed as Scudetto winners.
Sassuolo looked to have gotten themselves in front when Manuel Locatelli tapped in with more than an hour played but substitute Giacomo Raspadori, like Hateboer earlier, was offside before his teammate finished.
The hosts themselves were then reduced to just ten men when Marlon brought down Luis Muriel in the box to hand Atalanta a penalty and earn himself his second booking of the day. Muriel, after a long wait, saw his spot kick saved by Consigli though and the rebound was cleared to safety.
Atalanta poured forward in search of a late winner and had efforts saved and cleared off the line, but were unable to find a way through.
La Dea are now 13 points off top spot with four rounds to play, crowning Inter as Serie A champions.
