For the first time since 2004, Inter were held to four consecutive draws in Serie A as Alexis Sanchez rescued a point for Simone Inzaghi’s side at Torino.
Ivan Juric’s men took the lead only 12 minutes into the match through centre-back Gleison Bremer. The Brazilian took advantage of the visitors’ sloppy defending of a corner-kick to tuck the ball home from close range and help Torino open the scoring for the tenth time in 11 Serie A home outings.
The Granata came close to doubling their lead, but Inter shot-stopper Samir Handanovic came up huge to deny Andrea Belotti’s fierce low effort driven towards the bottom corner.
The Nerazzurri needed a response quickly, and they almost found it via a set-piece play. But Lautaro Martinez’s attempt from Hakan Calhanoglu’s free-kick forced a stunning reaction save from Etrit Berisha.
After the Albanian goalkeeper ensured Torino’s 1-0 lead at half-time, Inzaghi tried to shake things up a bit at the start of the second half. Robin Gosens and Federico Dimarco joined the fray at the expense of Ivan Perisic and Alessandro Bastoni as part of Inzaghi’s bid to move his lines further up the field.
Dimarco thought he would rack up an assist from a free-kick, but Matias Vecino’s header skied over the crossbar. The left-footed defender was inches away from restoring a stalemate himself, but Berisha pulled off another save to thwart his attempt.
When it looked like Torino would withstand a siege, Inter found their hero in Sanchez. The second-half substitute managed to avoid Berisha with a finish off the post deep into the stoppage time to hand the Nerazzurri a point.
Inter are now four points adrift of Serie A pacesetters Milan, albeit a game in hand leaves them firmly in the Scudetto race. However, Inzaghi has plenty of work ahead of him, with his side going winless in five of their last six league outings.
Inter captain Handanovic is reluctant to concede defeat in the Scudetto run-in, though. In the post-match interview, the veteran goalkeeper insisted the title race is still wide open despite his side’s recent drop-off.
“Regarding the fact that Inter have a game in hand and are four points behind Milan, the title race is still open and will be so until the final matchday,” he told Inter’s website.
“We’ve not been lacking in performances; there are ten games to go and we’ve got to try to win them.“