AFP
Milan, Italy
Roberto Mancini was left counting the cost of missed chances as Inter Milan slipped further out of Serie A title contention with a 3-3 draw away to basement side Verona on Sunday.
Inter conceded three goals from set pieces on their way to a sixth draw of the campaign that left them in fourth but in danger of trailing Napoli by 11 points if Maurizio Sarri's league leaders beat Carpi later Sunday.
"We threw two points away but it could have been worse in the end when we came close to conceding a fourth on the counter," Mancini told Sky Sport Italia. "Unfortunately, all the goals we conceded were from set plays. We conceded a similar goal to Milan so it's something we have to improve.
"We can't afford to be giving goals away like that. I'm very disappointed. But we will keep fighting all the way and hopefully soon we'll get back to winning ways."
Inter's bid for just their second win in their past six outings got off to the perfect start when Jeison Murillo rose above the hosts' defence to head past Pierluigi Gollini on eight minutes. But even before then the visitors had missed two great chance to break the deadlock through Rodrigo Palacio, who fired straight at goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini, and Marcelo Brozovic after he sent his shot over the bar.
And the game turned on its head in three first-half minutes when Filip Helander and Eros Pisano struck to give Verona a 2-1 lead just after the quarter hour. Helander pulled Verona level with a near carbon copy of Murillo's goal, the Swedish centre-back rising above the Inter defence to glance a header past Samir Handanovic at the keeper's far post.
Pisano was given even more space by Inter's defence three minutes later when he rose to meet a free kick to see his header spin into the back of the net. Inter could have levelled in spectacular style soon after when Brozovic met a cut-back cross from the byeline with a superb volley that spun just wide of Gollini's upright. Gollini did well to come out and block Palacio's cross-shot into the area as Icardi ran in for the final touch, then had no problem collecting Geoffrey Kondogbia's soft effort from outside the area.
Those misses proved costly when Artur Ionita rose above the Inter defence to beat Handanovic with a third header to send Verona's fans, who had celebrated their side's opening win of the campaign against Atalanta last week, delirious just three minutes before the hour. But Inter were far from finished and quickly capitalised on soft defending to pull level with 12 minutes on the clock.
Croatian international Ivan Perisic replaced Felipe Melo at half-time as Mancini tinkered with his formation, and just after the hour sent Icardi through between two defenders for the Argentine striker to poke the ball past the onrushing Gollini and into the net.
Inter began to pile the pressure on but Gollini was alert, the 'keeper notably stopping another point-blank effort from Palacio with his boot. But Verona's defence let the 'keeper down 12 minutes before the end when Perisic ran at the far post to meet Palacio's pacy cross and beat Gollini first-time.
Gollini did well to parry Eder's swerving effort, but Verona, too, spurned late chances with Gilberto's effort coming off the near post and late substitute Romulo lobbing Handanovic only to see the ball go wide of post and crossbar.
