Inter Milan suffered their first defeat after eight games in Serie A.
Sampdoria have thwarted Inter‘s chances of going to the top of the table after beating them 2-1 at home.
Inter were coming after an emphatic 6-2 win against Crotone but failed to keep up their winning momentum against Sampdoria.
The hosts struck twice in the first half, with former Nerazzurri players Antonio Candreva and Keita Balde finding the scoresheet.
Stefan de Vrig pulled one back in the 65th minute but it remained as the only goal in the second half.
Alexis Sanchez had a penalty denied by Sampdoria keeper Audero and in hindsight, Inter must be regretting the missed chance.
The absence of in-form striker Romelu Lukaku – who only featured for the final half-hour – was clearly felt while Lautaro Martinez, who scored a hat-trick on Sunday, was kept at bay.
Inter also missed the chance to grab up the top spot as the defeat would see them remain in the second position.
However, Inter manager Antonio Conte feels that his side doesn’t deserve the defeat.
“It was quite a strange game. We found ourselves going from a missed penalty to conceding two goals in quick succession.”
“Clearly, that caused difficulty, but the team had been playing well and created numerous scoring opportunities. It was a strange match.
“Sometimes you deserve to lose, in other situations like today, it just doesn’t go your way. We could’ve even scored on the rebound from the penalty, but that hit the woodwork.
“It was tough to come back from 2-0 down, even though we tried to the end.”
