Daily Times

MILAN: Inter Milan hit back from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Parma in Serie A on Saturday with Ivan Perisic heading a stoppage-time equaliser after Gervinho scored twice for the visitors. In a match refereed by fourth official Marco Piccinini when referee Luca Pairetto suffered a pulled muscle in the warm-up, Gervinho struck with a majestic volley less than a minute after the restart and doubled Parma’s lead just past the hour. Marcelo Brozovic pulled one back and fellow Croat Perisic headed the equaliser in the second minute of added time. Inter, missing leading scorer Romelu Lukaku and fellow forward Alexis Sanchez through injury, are fifth with 11 points while Parma have five after six games. It was another less than impressive performance from Antonio Conte’s side who have won just one of their last six games in all competitions. Parma, missing several players after positive COVID-19 tests in the last two weeks, proved remarkably resilient in the first half and then broke the deadlock immediately after the restart. Hernani lofted a pass over the Inter defence and Gervinho got away from two defenders before volleying the ball past Samir Handanovic with his instep.

The Ivorian broke free again to latch on to Roberto Inglese’s pass in the 62nd minute and this time rolled the ball past Handanovic. Brozovic, who had just come on, pulled aa goal back with a shot from the edge of the area two minutes later to put Inter back in the match. As the hosts penned Parma into their own half, Aleksandar Kolarov whipped a free kick into the Parma area and Perisic got in front of his marker to head home at the near post. Arturo Vidal, who replaced the ineffective Christian Eriksen, nearly snatched a dramatic winner for Inter but headed wide in the last move of the match.