SERIE A: Inter Milan pip Atalanta to Champions League spot with 3-2 win

<p>Inter Milan secured Champions League qualification in their penultimate game of the Serie A season, dealing a fatal blow to Atalanta’s own top-four hopes with a 3-2 win at San Siro.</p>, <p>The Nerazzurri – finalists in Europe’s premier club competition this term – stormed into a two-goal lead within just two minutes and 49 seconds after Romelu Lukaku and Nicolo Barella were on target.</p>, <p>Atalanta needed a result to keep their slim hopes of a top-four finish alive, and they were handed a lifeline by Mario Pasalic before the interval on Saturday.</p>, <p>ALSO READ: TRANSFER RUMOURS: Arsenal mull Boey move, as Madrid tie up £100m Bellingham deal</p>, <p>Yet Inter added a deserved third through Lautaro Martinez after the break, making Andre Onana’s late own goal a mere Atalanta consolation, as the Nerazzurri moved eight points clear of their fifth-placed visitors.</p>, <p>Lukaku only needed 39 seconds to put Inter ahead, timing his run from Martinez’s throughball before rounding Marco Sportiello and tapping into an empty net.</p>, <p>ALSO READ: Tyson Fury sends ‘formal offer’ to fight Anthony Joshua</p>, <p>Atalanta found themselves further behind by the three-minute mark, Barella hammering a rebound into the roof of the net after Sportiello twice saved from Federico Dimarco.</p>, <p>Hakan Calhanoglu was denied a third by the offside flag when he netted with a ferocious volley before Onana was forced into action by Rasmus Hojlund and Teun Koopmeiners.</p>, <p>Atalanta halved the arrears nine minutes before half-time, Pasalic hooking a finish beyond Onana following a goalmouth scramble.</p>, <p>Calhanoglu drew a flying save from Sportiello as Atalanta wilted after the interval, Inter managing the game in typically assured fashion.</p>, <p>Martinez stretched Inter’s lead further when Marcelo Brozovic teed up a tap-in 13 minutes from time before Luis Muriel’s powerful long-range strike deflected in off the unfortunate Onana as the Nerazzurri just held on for victory.</p>